With neither Glasgow Warriors or Edinburgh getting beyond the Guinness PRO14 semi-finals, the majority of the Scotland squad have had plenty of time to prepare for this summer’s tour.
And captain Stuart McInally, deputising for the rested John Barclay, is confident the extra time in camp working on fitness and skills will pay dividends in the coming weeks.
In addition to Barclay, Richie Gray will also miss the tour after pulling out with a hip injury and will continue his rehab with club side Toulouse.
Scotland, third in the 2018 NatWest 6 Nations, face Canada on June 9 before facing the USA and Argentina over the next two weekends.
“We can’t wait to get out there. There’s been a lot of games (in training), working on our fitness and a lot of skill work which is great,” said McInally.
“When you’re out there the weeks go pretty quick, you don’t get much time, you spend a lot of time focusing on a game plan and running your plays.
“It’s nice to have some days on training where you can focus hard on speed and fitness and hone our skill work, it’s nice to get that done before we head away.
“Obviously we finished the season at Edinburgh about a month ago. We did a bit of training last week and this week it’s nice to get the whole squad together.”
Scotland last travelled to the Americas in 2014 when they recorded a 24-6 victory over the United States before holding on for a narrow 19-17 win over Canada.
There was further success to come against Argentina with a 21-19 triumph in Córdoba but McInally is not under-estimating Scotland’s opponents.
“Canada and USA are two excellent teams, they’re going to be pretty physical in terms of the way they play and they’re at home so they will have good support,” he added.
“We’ve always had good matches against them in the past, just look at the last tour we went on they were two very close games so we’re expecting two tough games.
“Then it’s down to Argentina where the standard of rugby they’ve been playing recently has been really high and we’re expecting that to be a tough Test match.
“It’s a great opportunity for us and for me to get down there and get stuck in and see where we are at.”
