Just qualifying from a pool that includes the newly crowned Six Nations champions and an Argentine side that finished third at the last World Cup might seem a daunting challenge after another disappointing campaign but Robinson is aiming higher.

"Scotland at their very best have the ability to beat anybody," he said. "But, if we drop down in any shape or form against any team, they will beat us.

“That is what we have to understand about this team. As you saw in the championship we will lose games if we are not at our very best.

"So in the World Cup, yes (we could lose to Romania and Georgia). They have the potential to be real banana skins.

"I have belief in what we can do but if we drop off against those two teams we'll get beaten by them. And that is where Scotland is.

“The importance for us is obviously getting out of the pool and the one thing we want to focus on is getting out by winning the pool. That's the ambition that we've got to have.

"We've got to be ambitious as a group of people. We've got to set the barriers. We've got to challenge ourselves.

“The two warm-up games (against Ireland and Italy in August) we'll be ready to compete. We won't fear England and playing in Auckland.

"As a side we'll look forward to that match. We showed last week playing at Twickenham that we can go toe-to-toe with England.”