There is a lot of Scottish sporting history wrapped up in Saint-Etienne, the industrial city in the Massif Central where Gregor Townsend’s team will face France on Saturday evening.
If the Italy game was short on sparkle – except for Darcy Graham’s tries – and there were too many handling errors from the Scots, it was a better start than the first warm-up matches four years ago.
Grant Gilchrist believes it is a case of “now or never” for Scotland as they bid to cap a period of growth by making a meaningful impact at the World Cup this September and October.