Scotland captain Rory Darge is relishing the prospect of flexing his muscles against the famed Fijian pack in the first Test of their Pacific islands tour in Suva on Saturday.
The Glasgow flanker will lead the side outright for the first time as coach Gregor Townsend makes 14 changes to the line-up that began the tour with a gruelling win over the Maori All Blacks last week.
The match is of critical importance to Scotland’s hopes of nudging into the world’s top six, which would guarantee them a much more favourable draw in the pool stages for the 2027 World Cup.
Darge said: “They (Fiji) are the benchmark for physicality, and we’re on their patch in a place where not many if any of us have ever played rugby, so that’s why it’s exciting.
“You want to go up against the best and ultimately that’s why everyone plays this game. It’s a great shared experience playing rugby in a place where there are such different challenges.”
Fiji pushed Australia close in a 21-18 defeat last Sunday and the Scotland squad are braced for a much tougher test than the comfortable win they secured against the same opponents at Murrayfield last November.
And Darge insists that although it has been noted in the build-up, his side must cast aside any thoughts of the importance of the fixture to the longer-term picture.
“It (the world ranking) is something there’s been a little bit of talk about, but you can’t really look beyond Fiji because it is such a big challenge,” he said. “It’s an exciting one and we’re definitely aware of what we need to produce.”
Saracens fly-half Fergus Burke will make his debut in Suva having featured in the squad for this year’s Six Nations campaign without seeing any action.
