THERE is an element of deja vu about discussing the season ahead with Scott Cummings. Good pre-season: plenty of fitness work and hoping it will be a breakthrough campaign. It is all there – just as it was just over 12 months ago when, as a precocious 19-year-old lock, he was bubbling with enthusiasm.

However, things did not pan out as he hoped when Glasgow Warriors' final pre-season match, against Gloucester, ended with him taken to hospital to have a dislocated shoulder put back in place. By the time he got back to playing in early February, there were too few chances to make his mark.

Now it is time for him to try again, this time backed not only by a solid pre-season but also by the confidence boost of being invited to the Scotland training camp earlier this month.

"It has shown me a level of rugby I want to play at and a lot of the areas I've still got to improve in," he said. "It's a really big step up. Here at Glasgow is obviously a high level but going to Scotland everything is a bit sharper and quicker.

"Going there has given me an idea that if I want to play at that level then there's some parts of my game that need to be improved."

Even with his confidence sky high, he must have breathed a sigh of relief at not only coming through this season's final friendly test but after scoring a spectacular try as well – a 40-metre run-in after he was set up by Lelia Masaga, the New Zealand wing.

"I just had to support The Flash's [Masaga] amazing run to be honest," Cummings said. "Playing that expansive game you will find bigger guys out in wider areas from time to time and we are all really fit after pre-season. We're all coming in to the season probably the fittest we've been. We've all been breaking personal bests in our fitness scores.

"I feel really good, really fit and feel I've been playing well in the pre-season games. For me I've just got to play my best whenever possible – whether I'm starting or on the bench, it's up to the coaches.

"Our big focus this year is that we're a squad and we're not all fighting against each other. Whether it's me starting, Greg [Peterson] or Brian [Alainu'uese], we'll all be helping each other out to make sure we get the win at the weekend."

That said, the 6ft 6in 20-year-old has another huge chance to make his mark with Dave Rennie and the rest of the new coaching team since Jonny Gray is out for the first couple of months of the season, allowing the likes of Cummings not just to play his way up the pecking order but also to demonstrate how good he is as a line-out leader.

It looks as though he is likely to get first shot at the job when the team travels to Galway tomorrow to play Connacht on Saturday evening. If he does, Cummings will be taking a step into the unknown.

"I've never been to Galway before so it should be great. I know the crowd is always pretty close," he said. "I'm sure there will be a great atmosphere and a lot of wind I'm guessing. Hopefully it will be a good game."

After watching on TV with his arm in a sling when Glasgow demolished the Irish province in the equivalent game last season, Cummings is just thankful to have made the start of this season's campaign. The rest, he knows, is up to him.

*AFTER the SRU missed out on having any official on the Guinness PRO12 panel last season, a Scottish referee is back in the big time after Mike Adamson was named in the PRO14's elite panel for the season ahead.