Ruaraidh Hart reckons learning from the likes of Scott Cummings and Richie Gray while training for Glasgow Warriors is the best preparation he can get for a professional career.

The 19-year-old will begin his second U20 Six Nations campaign with Scotland on Friday night and he believes the squad are in a much better position than they were during last year’s campaign where they suffered some heavy defeat, including shipping 82 to Ireland.

Preparations have been different for the squad with the Future XV team playing in the Super Series while many of the players are training with Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh on a daily basis. And the 6ft 5in second rower will be vice captain for the tournament under Kenny Murray and believes the squad is in a brilliant place to improve.

He said: “It is great, especially for me as a second-row who likes to really look at the lineout and how that works because there are loads of guys to watch and learn from and talk to.

“I have had lots of chats with the guys like Richie (Gray), Scott (Cummings) and others. They are very experienced and big on the detail so that helps my understanding and has been great for me.

“I think it has been really good, certainly from a strength and conditioning standpoint, for most of the boys to have been in a pro environment in recent months and you can certainly see the difference in terms of gym numbers and speeds across the squad.

“Everyone has been going well in the gym and on the pitch as well and we have a lot more experience coming into this environment now, we have a number of players that played last year, have played Futures and been in the pro environments so we have taken a lot of learning from that and also managed to play quite a few minutes in the last few months.

“We have also been able to spend more time together and we have gained experience playing against big, physical teams that will prepare us well for the Six Nations.”