Matt Scott knows a thing or two about fostering a winning mentality.

The former Scotland centre was part of the Leicester Tigers squad that claimed the Premiership title two years ago in a dressing room where nothing was off limits or ever taken personally in the relentless quest to be the best.

Now back at Edinburgh for a third stint, Scott thinks a bit of tough love wouldn’t go amiss at Hive Stadium either.

The 33-year-old played under Richard Cockerill in his previous spell in the capital, a renowned tough taskmaster who rarely spared anyone’s feelings in getting his message across.

Scott admits he would have likely retired from rugby had Edinburgh not come in for him but he is now 100 percent committed to doing all he can to make this a squad capable of competing at the top end of the URC table.

The one-time Gloucester player is still getting to know many of his teammates during the pre-season slog but wants to get to a point where he is comfortable calling them out when things aren’t going well - and hopes they will learn to do the same in reverse.

“Leicester is a club that demands that you win and the attitude of the players and the staff, the demands we put on each other, is train every day like champions would train,” he reveals.

“We had so many guys that were just winners. Richard Wigglesworth won multiple Premierships, Chris Ashton, Ben Youngs, Mike Brown….all these guys were winners and they knew the standards and knew when things weren’t going well then people had to be told straight. 

“It was such a brilliant environment where you felt you never wasted a minute and everything was done for a purpose and that was to win.

“I’m not saying Edinburgh have never trained hard but with a few little tweaks here and there, small things, attitude things…

“The guys have got brilliant attitudes here and we worked incredibly hard under Cockers.

"There have been different regimes here but maybe there are a couple of little mental things that can help get us over the line because, looking at the team sheet, it’s a team packed with talent.

“I said to the boys, ‘I want to get to know you all, what makes you tick’. Then we can get the most out of each other, trust each other and demand everything from each other because we need an environment where we can be honest with each other and give direct feedback because we all want to get better.

“It’s nothing personal. The best environments I’ve been in at Leicester we’ve been best mates off the field but we can properly tell each other straight at meetings and on the pitch and everyone’s fine. Those are the best environments and I think if we can get to that place then we can push on. 

“Hopefully, if I see something that’s not the standard of a championship team I’ll be happy to call that out to make everyone better.”

Scott’s experience will be vital in helping the development of younger players like Mosese Tuipulotu and Matt Currie but he makes clear he’s back primarily to play, not pass on tips.

“First and foremost I want to play as many games as possible,” he underlines.

“I still feel I’ve got a lot of good rugby left in me. I’ve got a lot of experience and feel a completely different player to the one that left Edinburgh in terms of the wisdom I can pass on. The people I’ve been around and the coaches I’ve been around have been amazing, I’ve been really lucky.

“But think I’ll help [the other players] mostly by driving competition and pushing them to get better because I think if I’m content not playing then that’s not going to help them much.

"Whereas if I’m pushing them and keeping them out the team or vice-versa it’s going to create good competition for all of us.

"So all I’m really focused on is impressing the coaches in training and trying to get in the team, basically.”