IT did not take long for the Scotland players to come down from the high of beating Australia. A relaxed night in the Coogee suburb of Sydney, then the eight-hour plane and bus trek to Suva in Fiji and they are ready to go again.

They know it will be hard on Saturday. They have lost more players after the Australian match, with Allan Dell and Finn Russell – the latter trying to ignore rumours of a big-money offer to join Vern Cotter at Montpellier – off to the Lions, Alex Dunbar off on holiday and all of them carrying the scars of battle.

One player desperate to get back out there, however, is Greig Tonks, who played full back at the weekend but popped up regularly on the fly half slot and broke his Test scoring duck in his seventh game when he slotted a long-range penalty two minutes into the match.

For him, it was almost a miracle that he was there at all, two years after his last involvement with a Scotland squad.

"It has been an amazing season, it has revitalised my love for rugby," he enthused as he reflected on a year winning with London Irish before his shock international call-up. "I loved it, it was a good year for me."

The issue for him was that his club had been relegated to the Championship in England and he admits he knew it would be hard, almost impossible, to get noticed by the Scotland coaches playing second-tier rugby.

That they were winning helped, but still, it was a huge surprise, even to him, when the call came through. "I knew the squad had been named and I was not in it; Sean [Maitland] had been injured but I was still was surprised," he said.

"I knew it was an amazing tour so I snatched at the opportunity to take it; I said 'yes' straight away, 'get me on the plane.'

"The problem was that the season had not finished for us at London Irish, we still had the [Championship] final to be played. It was excitement for this [tour] but also a case of not thinking about it too much because there was a big game coming up for London Irish."

He made it through to the tour, was left out of the first game in Singapore and then thrown in at the deep in in Sydney. Not just winning for your country but scoring in that win; it was the stuff of dreams. No doubting his mind, the highlight of his career.

The Fijians, though, are a different challenge. An intuitive set of players who revel in their own unpredictability, Tonks knows they will be up for the challenge.

"It will be tough, we will have to get to know them pretty well to know what they are going to bring," h added. "I play with one of the squad Asaeli Tikoirotuma [a centre or wing ] at London Irish, but I'm not sure if Fiji are picking him.

"If he does not play that might be a good thing for us. If he does, I'm good mates with him so he will be coming for me, I reckon."The Herald: