Scotland being in South America to play Chile and Uruguay will never set the pulses racing. Some players may privately not want to go after a long hard season but will never turn down a calling from their country.

If they were playing Argentina - Scotland have had some epic encounters against them away from home in the past- then the squad would be looking forward to the challenge. Instead, they will be hoping to get through the two fixtures with the minimum of fuss.

I worry for the Scottish players who are taking on tier two nations who are looking on these international matches as very big deals. Hopefully, the Chile and Uruguayan players don’t get too carried away and lose their discipline and unintentionally inflict some bad injuries on the Scots.

I am not trying to be a prophet of doom but these things can happen. 

Scotland having four tour games over the summer is not good. They are travelling more than any other tier one nation and that takes its toll. They are on the road so much that the final tour game against Uruguay is outside the international window so only Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors players will take part.

First up for Scotland is Chile, who should be pushovers, in Santiago next weekend. Although they qualified for the 2023 World Cup -their first appearance at the tournament- they lost all their games. Japan beat them 42-12, Samoa won 43-10, England destroyed them 71-0 before Argentina cruised to a 59-5 victory.

There are links between Scotland and Chilean rugby with Donald and Ian Campbell, both of whom turned out for the South American nation, being inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame back in 2012. Their dad Colin Campbell emigrated to Chile from Scotland and played for his adopted nation in the 1910 South American football championship. 

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His son Donald, who was a centre, made his debut for Chile at the age of 19 in 1938 but the dual British and Chilean citizen died in a bombing raid over Nazi Germany in 1944 when his Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster crashed at Gelsenkirchen killing all on board. 

Fly-half Ian Campbell, who died two years ago at the age of 94, is considered one of the best Chilean rugby players of all time. He made his debut against Uruguay in 1948 and went on to captain his country. Their names are sure to be mentioned at official functions involving representatives of both nations.

Scotland then travel to face Uruguay in Montevideo. The Uruguayans also qualified for the 2023 World Cup where they won one of their four matches. That was 36-26 against Namibia who lost all their games. In their other fixtures they lost 27-12 against France, 38-17 to Italy and 73-0 to New Zealand. They will be tougher than Chile but it should still be an easy Scotland win.

On the positive side for Uruguay they have a very good next generation coming through which is something that Scotland can’t guarantee.

It is a year or two too early for the young Uruguayans to come through and make a difference to their national team but they have a very good under-20 side. So good that they beat Scotland 37-26 in the semi-final of the 2023 World Cup Under20 Trophy in Nairobi.

They have played Scotland in a full international just once before, and that was in the 1999 World Cup group game at Murrayfield.

Instantly forgettable, it ended in a 43-12 win played in front of a small crowd of around 10,000. The star man for Scotland that day was Gregor Townsend who scored Scotland’s fifth and final try.

Hopefully, when I write my first column after the final two tour matches I will be able to report a clean bill of health for all the players involved as that is the most important thing.

It is going to be a long season for some Scotland players with a British and Irish Lions tour to Australia at the end of it. 

The South American leg of the four-match tour is a development one in all but name and has to be endured more than anything.