Modern sports science means that players are well prepared and expertly looked after throughout the build-up and duration of the tournament, but this is a tough, tough mission for the young men labouring in the heat of a sunny Georgian summer.

Tight-head prop Ollie Blyth-Lafferty – doing it the hard way as a 6ft 4ins and 21st 6lbs giant anchoring the Scottish scrum – is one of 10 players in the Scotland starting XV fronting up for the third consecutive time in tomorrow final pool match against Japan. The others being full-back Rory McHaffie, wingers Daniel Kelly and Nairn Moncrieff, centre Henry Kesterton, stand-off Jake Dalziel, hooker Joe Roberts, second-rows Dan Halkon and Christian Lindsay and back-row Jack Utterson.

Meanwhile, seven more – utility-back Alex Bryden, scrum-halves Asa Stewart-Harris and Matthew Fick, replacement hooker Jamie McAughtrie, replacement tight-head Jackson Rennie, replacement flanker Oliver Finlayson-Russell and No 8 Harvey Preston have been involved as a starter or bench option in all three games so far.

Conversely, its also tough for  the three players who are yet to feature in any of the match-day squads announced so far. They are second-row Archie Appleby, centre Harry Soboil and especially scrum-half Hamish MacArthur (who was a stalwart for Scotland throughout last season’s U20s Six Nations but has been sidelined by the recruitment during the build-up to this tournament of a South African and an Englishman who played against Scotland during the recent Six Nations).

Of course, organising and managing game-time is a matter for the game’s administrators and coaches. For the players, it is all about the next hurdle, and despite the physical challenges posed by being the biggest man in the Scotland squad playing in the most physically demanding position, Blyth-Lafferty shrugged off questions about how he is coping with impressive breeziness.

“I’m not too bad,” he said earlier this week. “Obviously, I’ve done it last year so I’m a wee bit more used to it but we’ve got ice baths after this so I’ll be getting right in there and that’s what all the boys have been hammering for the past couple of days, just doing the work on the pitch, staying out the sun and hammering the ice baths, so I think I’m holding it up pretty well.”

“It’s been good coming in and with the season that I’ve had especially around the prep stuff,” added the Boroughmuir-developed front-rower, who came into this tournament off the back of a fine breakthrough season with Edinburgh, in which he featured in 15 out of 24 URC and Champions Cup games.

“I went from the Edinburgh environment and played the final game against Connacht and then on the Monday I was back with the 20s and I’d say overall the S&C, the nutritionists and stuff like that they’ve all helped me out and have been understanding of where I’ve came from and the stuff I’ve been doing, and how there’ll be slight changes for me.

“On pitch as well, it’s helped because I’ve came from quite a lot of games of rugby that I’ve played this season compared to a lot of other boys who’ve just been in prep blocks.”

Looking forward to tomorrow afternoon’s final pool match against Japan [Tuesday with a 12.30pm kick-off], Blyth-Lafferty stressed that morale in the group is high after winning their first match of the campaign against Italy last Tuesday and then pushing New Zealand hard before having to settle for a bonus-point against New Zealand on Saturday morning.

“One thing we’ve said is there’s a lot of things we can take from that game [against New Zealand] and having confidence going into Japan is the biggest thing,” continued Blyth-Lafferty.

“You need to analyse these games in the right way, being in this environment, being able to analyse a game, but being able to drop it and move on too while taking from it what you need going into your next game is key.

“With this being our final pool game, there’s so many positives that we can take into it from New Zealand, especially as forwards not just as a team, but in our set-piece ability and what we’re really good at, and we need to take pride in what we do against Japan.”

Asked how he feels about the prospect of starting all five matches, he chuckled: “I’m not 100 percent sure, I just need to wait and see and take it as it comes.

“But, like the rest of the boys, whether you’re involved or not, you take it in your stride and you do the job whether you’ve got number three on your back or you’ve got number 18 on your back or you’re travelling as a reserve, you’ve been selected because you’ve got a job to do.

“I think it’ll be tough going into the final two after Japan but I think with the staff we’ve got here in and around recovery and in terms of the morale based side of things it’s something that we’re just taking our stride in as it comes.”