Rugby World Cup 2023: Scotland must treat warm-ups as part of tournament, says Chris Paterson
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Scotland's first World Cup warm-up is against Italy on 29 July
Scotland must treat their warm-up matches as an extension of the World Cup, says former international Chris Paterson.
The Scots start their build-up against Italy at Murrayfield on July 29.
Gregor Townsend's side then face France home and away before a home meeting with Georgia.
"You have to change your mindset away from saying you have four warm-up fixtures and then a World Cup," Paterson said.
"I think they have to run together. You're almost running a whole series of internationals from the Italy game in July right through to whenever you exit the World Cup rather than making it two separate entities.
"I quite like the fact that Gregor Townsend is talking about making the final squad announcement a little bit earlier because that kind of marries into it."
Scotland face defending champions South Africa in Marseille in their World Cup opener on 10 September.
Head coach Townsend named a 41-man training squad earlier this month and spoke of cutting that down to the final squad of 33 for the tournament quicker than he did four years ago for the tournament in Japan.
"Maybe the last two or three World Cups sometimes we've made too much of the World Cup selection," Paterson, Scotland's record points scorer, told the BBC Scotland Rugby Podcast.
"Yes it's an accolade and a reward for those that have been able to make that squad, but sometimes the exposure of that is maybe too big."
"The unveiling of those who are chose to go to the World Cup becomes a big event when really that is a start point."