Sam and Ben Chalmers – who, like their father, play at stand-off – have been selected alongside Scotland’s top-rated rugby talent from the under-15 to under-18 age groups.

Craig Dods takes to the field in the favoured full-back position of his father, one of the heroes of Scotland’s 1984 Grand Slam.

The camp at Struan acts as the first step towards identifying and selecting the players who will represent Scotland at under-17 and under-18 level.

Now in its 30th year, the scheme has helped develop the likes of Mike Blair, John Barclay, Ben Cairns and Nick de Luca for full Scotland honours.

The intensive training regime sees young players given fitness training, specialist rugby coaching, aquatic recuperation and match action.

Former Scotland international Grant McKelvey, who is now the SRU’s senior performance development manager, is in charge of the rugby coaching for the four age groups.

He said: “Basically what we’ve got here is the best home based and exile players that have been identified through our performance development framework.

“For the under-17 group this is the start of their respective national programmes and is a great opportunity to promote themselves.

“For the younger age groups, it’s a chance for them to develop themselves, improve their rugby, their social skills and their team-building skills - working together, dealing with a bit of hardship sometimes – and that’s generally the overview of the camp.

“The boys are in tents and are not surrounded by the trappings of wealth. They have to do their own washing up and we certainly don’t run about after them, so the guys get an understanding of what they have to do to work effectively as part of a team.

“I hope that the boys will come away with a bunch of new friends and maybe another 10 or 15 people on their Bebo or Facebook sites.

“Hopefully they’ll have a good week learning the key national themes that the performance development managers are trying to instill on them and some good social and team-working skills.

“Twenty-five years ago when I was here as a player they did an excellent job but the main difference is that the majority of the staff were all volunteers.

“Now the rugby is being delivered by professional members of staff who are experts in dealing with children of this age, the facilities are slightly better but not much, the river is still as cold as it always was, and the pitches are still as rustic.”