Borderer Stuart Hogg hoping to end rugby-playing days on high note

Head coach Gregor Townsend’s Scottish side have got three warm-up matches lined up at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium this summer ahead of a minimum of four pool games at this year’s Rugby World Cup in France in September and October and Hawick’s Hogg, 31 in June, is keeping his fingers crossed that he can stay fit and that he’s selected for all of them.

“I want to be involved in every single game of rugby between now and then and I’ll do all I can to mump and moan my way through the week and get fit,” he told his club Exeter Chiefs’ website.

“What better way is there to end than hopefully winning trophies with a very special club and going to a world cup to represent your country?

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be in this position and one day I’ll sit back and understand what’s been done, but for now I’m going to very much live in the moment.”

The Scots’ warm-up games are against Italy on Saturday, July 29, with kick-off at 3.15pm; France on Saturday, August 5, at 3pm; and Georgia on Saturday, August 26, at 5.30pm.

Come the world cup, they play current champions South Africa on Sunday, September 10; Tonga on Sunday, September 24; Romania on Saturday, September 30; and Ireland on Saturday, October 7, in a bid to secure qualification for quarter-finals starting on Saturday, October 14.

Full-back Hogg is currently on 100 caps, 22 of them as captain, making him Scotland’s fourth-most-capped player of all time after fellow ex-Glasgow Warrior Sean Lamont on 105, Gala’s Chris Paterson on 109 and Kelso’s Ross Ford on 110.

Featuring in all seven matches the Scots know they’ll be playing would take him up to 107 and past Lamont, 42, but the only way he’d be able to match Ford, 39, is if Gala’s Townsend is able to guide his fifth-ranked side out of a pool featuring the cup’s current holders and the world’s top-ranked team, the Irish, all the way to the final or third-place play-off.