Stand-off Finn Russell and centre Sione Tuipulotu form a world-class midfield axis
And so the chance has arrived at last, decades in the waiting, decades largely made up of frustration, false dawns and fatalism.
Isolated wins but no consistency. The galling sight of Ireland and Wales winning championships and Grand Slams, partying hard as Scotland stared in the window. Locked out and unloved.
A string of coaches - Matt Williams and Frank Hadden, Andy Robinson, Scott Johnson and Vern Cotter - counted in and counted out again.
Cotter took Scotland forward but it is Gregor Townsend, in his ninth Six Nations, who has finally led them to their most significant championship game since the boys of 1999 won the title.
