Summer wins vital to avoid nightmare World Cup draw
Harry Paterson says this summer's tour matches against Fiji and Samoa are vital for Scotland to avoid another nightmare Rugby World Cup draw.The Scots were drawn alongside the world's two top-ranked teams, Ireland and South Africa, in Pool A for the 2023 World Cup, losing to both to exit at the first stage.Edinburgh full-back Paterson says the ranking points available for this summer are crucial for maintaining and even improving Scotland's current ranking of seventh in the world ahead of the draw for the 2027 World Cup in Australia.The Scots kick off their summer schedule against Maori All Blacks in Whangarei on 5 July - a match which carries no ranking points - before Tests against Fiji in Suva and Samoa in Auckland."I think as a squad, we know the importance of rankings this year, especially the games against the Fijians and the Samoans," Paterson said."We need to finish this year as high as we can to avoid what happened last World Cup cycle, so we can go with quite a high seeding."There's a lot riding on this tour, in terms of those rankings and strength of opposition."Paterson has endured a frustrating season, missing the Six Nations and much of the domestic campaign through injury, and is relishing the chance to stake a claim for a place in the Scotland team once again."I've had a bit of a strange season, managed to get some games at the end of the year after a lot of injuries," he said."It's just frustrating, but that means I'll probably have a quite fresh mindset going into this. I haven't had loads of games this year, so I'm ready to fly into it."I missed out on all the Six Nations stuff, so I'm really looking forward to trying to get back in the Scotland jersey and performing."
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