EVEN if the Scotland team were to make a quick detour via Disneyland Paris en route to the Stade de France on Saturday, chances are Edinburgh’s Blair Kinghorn would stay on the bus, knowing the rollercoaster ride he has experienced in the first three weeks of the Six Nations had been more of a white-knuckle ride than any mechanical contraption could offer.

Picked against Italy, he collected three tries, only to be benched for the Ireland game, then catapulted into the action after just 20 minutes. And next weekend, Kinghorn will be up front in the good seats for what could be a hugely bumpy ride against the struggling French.

With Stuart Hogg injured, Scotland coach Gregor Townsend has already nodded in the direction of 22-year-old Kinghorn to start against France.

“It was frustrating, as you can imagine,” Kinghorn admitted about going from man-of-the-match to man-in-the-stand in seven days. “But you just have to trust the team selection and that is the only thing I can do ... and keep working hard for myself. I was a bit frustrated but Sean [Maitland] coming back is a massively ­experienced guy and he has been playing unreal for Scotland over the last couple of games.

“Gregor said I hadn’t done anything wrong in my performance against Italy, which is good. I was just happy I played well, and accept that team selection is just how it is sometimes. You can’t really beat yourself up.

“If you sit in a slump for too long it’s not really going to help your development in any way. Obviously you can be frustrated with some of the selections but you’ve just got to pick yourself up and carry on, and prepare the best way you can for that week. If I’d been in a slump sitting on the bench thinking I should have been on the park then when Hoggy went down after 15 minutes I wouldn’t have been in the zone. You’ve just got to be switched on the whole time. If you just do your job then when it comes to it you’ll be fine.”

However, the Edinburgh utility back almost missed his big chance against the Irish.

“I’d just come back out from the toilet – I slipped out after the anthems. It’s one of those ones where I was waiting around for so long that it built up and I got myself too nervous – when I saw him (Hogg)take a knock. Sean Lamont comes over and is like ‘Blair, you go down and get ready’. You do get nervous but I was on so quickly after his injury happened that you don’t have much time to think about things or to be that nervous.”

Deputising for Hogg will be a big ask for Kinghorn although, to many neutrals, he did shade the head-to-head against the Lions full-back in the most recent 1872 contests.

And for Kinghorn (and others) there are plenty of comparisons between the inter-city rivals, even down to outright speed where Kinghorn might just be ahead.

“I think Hoggy will have something to say about that,” Kinghorn smiled. “I don’t know in terms of GPS stats. My strides are a lot longer than Hoggy’s – I think that’s why defenders sometimes get sat down a little bit by me, because they don’t expect me to be moving so quickly with my long legs, whereas ­Hoggy is kind of scuttling around the place and his change of direction is

phenomenal and means he’s making line breaks from the back with his quick change of pace.

“We’re quite similar players, it’s just that our body types are different. I’m a lot taller. We both play the game in a similar way – we’re both attacking players who like to carry the ball from back field. The way we go about things may be a little different, but the end goal is we’re both working towards the same thing.”

On Saturday, Kinghorn won’t have time for comfort breaks, either prior or during what will be a challenging 80 minutes against a smarting Les Bleus.

“If all goes well this week then hopefully I’ll get a run. It will be a tough game, I know, away to France but I think our club form has shown we can win away from home [with a] couple of big wins in France. I think we are all going there with a really positive mentality to right the wrongs of a tough game at the weekend [against Ireland],” said Kinghorn who has ­never set eyes on the French cathedral of sport, never mind played there.

“I played in some U18 stuff, I played Stade Francais...in the Challenge Cup a couple of years ago. This year Montpellier and Toulon [in Champions Cup action]. But no, I’ve never been there. I’ve heard it’s a good atmosphere, a massive stadium.”

Scotland’s record in the French capital is scarier than the most frightening ghost train ride; they haven’t won there since 1999, and closing in on the 26-year hiatus between Jim Telfer and Gavin Hastings’ winning tries in 1969 and 1995 respectively.

Given how France have opened up their 2019 campaign – allowing Wales a record comeback win in game one, followed by a mauling by the English at Twickenham – who knows what kind of team Scotland will face on Saturday, other than there will be 15 of them hell bent on pleasing the partisan Parisiennes.

“I don’t think they’ve been rubbish, against Wales. There were a couple of mistakes and the Welsh scored some simple tries,” Kinghorn said.

“We believe we can win every game that we go into, if we play the right rugby. But, sure, France is always seen as quite a hard thing [game] but the boys have got a lot more confidence now. We can go to tough places with our club side and come away with a win. It’s a game on its own so it should be good.”