Proud to be handed fourth tilt at glory

We’re the third seeded team in the pool of five, so we have to beat two teams that are ranked above us in the world rankings – Argentina and England.

They’re teams we know we can beat, that we’ve beaten in recent times, but if you don’t play well they’re teams that can sting you as well.

All the World Cups I’ve been involved in, the outcome has been so finely balanced.

The last World Cup it was one kick, against Italy, and the one before in 2003 was the same.

When Scotland played Fiji in Sydney it was a 78th-minute try and a 79th-minute conversion.

They’re finely balanced and this will be no different.

I was delighted to be selected. It is the next challenge.

I wanted to get this, a fourth World Cup, the first Scotsman to do so.

Now I have to go and play and make myself proud and deliver a good performance.

I know there is a lot of hard work round the corner.

My first cap was in a World Cup, against Spain in 1999, and it was then March before I got my second.

Back then I was looking to get my second cap, never mind my fourth World Cup.

A lot of the memories are still fresh of my World Cups but I never thought that in 2011 I would still be looking forward to playing in my fourth one.