Finn Russell is looking forward to the prospect of a summer of firsts with Scotland in the inaugural Nations Championship.
Since making his debut for Scotland on the 2014 summer tour, Russell has gone on to amass 94 caps and in the Six Nations finale in Dublin became just the fourth player to surpass the 500-point mark for the national team.
But the 33-year-old has never played in Argentina or with Scotland in South Africa.
And he is looking forward to being involved in those fixtures when the Nations Championship kicks off in July.
Scotland will open their campaign against the Pumas in Cordoba on July 4 aiming to avenge the South Americans’ comeback win at Murrayfield last November.
They will then head to Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria for a showdown with the world champion Springboks, before returning to Murrayfield to take on Fiji.
On Scotland’s summer fixtures, Russell said: "I’ve never been to Argentina.
“We’ve got them first up in the competition away so ideally if selected, I’m looking forward to going over there because I’ve never been to Argentina so that’ll be really cool.
“I’ve played South Africa with the Lions over there but never done it with crowds so I’d love to do that, that’d be good fun.
“And then we’ve got Fiji at home which’ll be brilliant obviously coming back home in the summer which’ll be the first game apart from a World Cup warm up that you have a summer test at home.”
The tournament will involve all of the Six Nations countries, the four Rugby Championship nations and two guests – Japan and Fiji.
They will meet in the southern hemisphere during the summer window, before games in the northern hemisphere in November.
Scotland will host the All Blacks, Australia and Japan at Murrayfield this autumn.
Their results will then determine who they face in a series of play-off matches at Allianz Stadium in London on the final weekend of November.
And Russell, speaking at an event at Nelson's Column in London to mark 100 days to the tournament’s kick-off, believes it is a positive step for the game.
“Having the level of competition every summer and every November will be great,” he said.
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“You’re going to have to play your best rugby every week in the summer and then in November to try and win this tournament.
“It’s gone from being three friendlies in summer and then three friendlies or four friendlies in November to a competition so having to play your best rugby the whole year will be great.
“For rugby as a whole, it’ll be really good.”
And Russell hopes a new tournament – and the finals weekend in London – can interest new supporters.
"It’ll be really fun when it gets to it,” he said when asked about the London event, which will see six games played across a weekend.
“For rugby as a whole it’s definitely something that’s probably needed,” he said.
“It’s not just one game, it’s three days of two games a day, like a festival effectively and that’ll be great.
“It’s something so different, something rugby’s probably never seen before. Again, potentially a little bit similar to what sevens do but in a completely different size I would imagine.
“Having it in London will be brilliant and it’ll be a great weekend.”
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