Scotland finally received some good news in the lesions front when it was revealed that Duhan Van Der Merwe will be in shape and available for the first game of the six nations with Italy on Saturday.
The end sat training with the Gregor Towsend team earlier last week after the Edinburgh Challenge Cup match against Black Lion with an ankle injury suffered against Vannes the previous weekend.
That led to the fear that the main scorer of all time of the nation could be established to join a list of victims, including captain sione tuipulotot, Scott Cummings, Dylan Richardson and Josh Bayliss, who have been discarded from the tournament of this anus.
However, defense coach Steve Tandy confirmed that the star born in South Africa will be ready to take his place in Towsend team against Azzurri in Murrayfield after the complete team participated in the training this week.
When asked how Van der Merwe was progressing, Tandy said: “Duhan has been training today, he has been good, he has done everything today.”
The sender Luke Crosbie and the second row's duo Gilchrist and Jonny Gray have also had injuries in recent weeks, but Tandy minimized any concern that the Scots can be beaten with more retreats.
Duhan Van der Merwe's return to training this week was an impulse for Scotland
Scotland's assistant coach Steve Tandy said there had been no new injuries.
'No, the boys trained today, everyone has been and have been training, so that is great for us after losing some. But that is rugby, each team has it.
“We have lost a couple of greats, but it is what it is, we have to focus on the children who are entering. It is an incredible opportunity to represent Scotland, whoever it is.”
He is confident that Scotland has enough experience in its ranks to deal with the loss of Tuipulotu and Lock Cummings, Tandy added: 'With Sieone and Scott and some of the biggest players who are still here, the leadership has been enormous, but I think that Much of his leadership has also been infected with others.
'The group has been together for a fair period of time now, so although there is a leader (tuipulotu), it is also shared. Stafford McDowall is Captain in Glasgow, so there are many experiences and learning shared throughout the group.
“Ultimately, it is a vacuum, but we have to fill it, and what we find is that when someone has an unfortunate injury, people who take a step forward are surprising.”