Scotland new boy's mystery call and what impressed Townsend

It was around eight o’clock and he had already resigned himself to missing out on the Scotland squad. His Edinburgh team-mate and pal, Paddy Harrison, had received notification of his call-up in the afternoon and as day slipped into night McConnell felt his ship had sailed.

But the mystery caller turned out to be Gregor Townsend. And the Scotland coach was phoning to tell the Edinburgh flanker that he had been selected for the autumn Test series.

It was, McConnell said, beyond his expectations but anyone who has seen him play for Edinburgh this season will know that it was also fully merited.

Thought of first cap spurs him on

As Townsend said last week, McConnell brings “an edge”. And not just in games. He trains with the same brio and isn’t easily overawed. Townsend remembers him picking a fight with Pierre Schoeman during a session when the main squad played against the under-20s.

“When you get out there training, and things get competitive and everybody's trying really hard, it just kind of happens really,” said McConnell.

And his dust-up with Schoeman? “Yeah, well he trains pretty hard himself so I guess it just kind of happens naturally when people are competitive.”

Townsend will be looking to him to bring the same combative spirit to proceedings on Saturday - if selected, of course - when Scotland face the USA at Murrayfield in their autumn opener. The thought of winning his first cap is spurring McConnell on, although he is trying to stay focused on training and the job in hand.

“It's more just trying to get my head around everything and just trying to train as best as I can and if it comes, it comes,” he said. “I'm not expecting anything so I'm just trying to train as hard as I can, but it would be pretty awesome.”

Learning from Jamie Ritchie

McConnell worked hard over the summer and both his Edinburgh coach, Sean Everitt, and Townsend have spoken about the condition he was in when he returned for pre-season. Stronger and fitter, he has kicked on in the early part of the campaign and is reaping the rewards. He said that Jamie Ritchie had been an inspiration for him at Edinburgh and when the former Scotland captain left the club for Perpignan in the summer, McConnell tried to pick up batten.

“I think we're kind of similar in a way to how we play, both sixes,” he said. “I think I've probably learnt a lot from him and since he's left I've tried to do things that he used to do while he was at the club.”

McConnell is a former captain at U20 level and also skippered the Emerging Scotland team last season against Italy U23s. His path to the national team may have seemed preordained but he has had to graft to get to this point which is why he was taking nothing for granted regarding a call-up.

“It was getting a bit later on, like six o'clock, and I hadn't really heard anything so I maybe thought I wasn't going to get a call,” he said. “I was just out for dinner with my girlfriend and at about eight o'clock my phone rang.

“It was just a random number on WhatsApp. I went outside and answered it and it was Gregor and he was just saying that it was good news and I would be in the squad and then just sort of talked about a few things that he had seen from the Edinburgh games recently that I was doing well and sort of why I was in the team.”

What particularly impressed Townsend was McConnell’s link play with the backs and his work at the lineout and the national coach will be looking to him to continue in the same vein on Saturday in what should be an occasion to remember for the 21-year-old.