By Roddy Grant Scotland flanker

London this week plays host to the penultimate leg of the IRB Sevens World Series.

The series has so far seen Scotland fail to make the Cup competition on any occasion.

With the domestic season now over, head coach Stephen Gemmell has been able to bolster his side with professional players, including full international caps Thom Evans and Ally Hogg.

Scotland's only ever-present this season is Roddy Grant, who says it's time for the players to be more than just good on paper.

We've had a good break since the last tournament in Adelaide in early April. Because we've not been together as a group since, we were excited to be with the squad all over again.

Most of us assembled on Sunday, but some of the Edinburgh boys joined us on Monday.

The last couple of days have been really good and the training has been going well. The guys who have come back together are getting stuck into it and the ones who've not been here for a couple of years are settling in well.

There have been a lot of changes to the squad, but everyone involved has played sevens before and the guys coming back in are the sort any team would be lucky to have.

Andy Turnbull was the top try scorer at the World Cup, Colin Gregor was the top points scorer and, as for Thom Evans and Ally Hogg, they've been involved in the past.

It's a testament to their character that they come in and it feels like they've never been away.

We've got the makings of a really good squad on paper. We just need to make sure that translates into a really good squad on the pitch.

We've got names that teams on the circuit will know and be envious of.

There have been a lot of disappointing results for us this season. The squad has changed, so it's a clean slate, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from mistakes the team have made in the past.

We've worked hard this week and we're ready for the weekend.

With the tournament being in London, we've had more time to prepare at home. Training at Murrayfield every day is fantastic and we've been away from the hustle and bustle of the tournament so can really focus on ourselves.

I played at Twickenham two years ago and, with its history, it's a great place to go, but we're also really looking forward to getting back to Murrayfield for the final weekend.

It makes a big difference not having to travel and not having to deal with jetlag. It's good to have more familiar surroundings and know we'll see a lot of Saltires in the crowd.

Last season, New Zealand won six of the eight tournaments, but this year it's been spread a bit more evenly. South Africa, England, Fiji and Argentina have all taken the honours at various tournaments and, of course, Wales won the World Cup.

On the circuit, we're not surprised when Kenya beat South Africa or New Zealand. It shows how much the game has improved recently, that it's not being dominated by one team.

It's better for the spectators, but also for players, because we can't consider any team an underdog.

This weekend we face Adelaide finalists Kenya, Fiji and the USA. We've played them all this season, as happens in sevens. But, although we know them, we still need to prepare thoroughly.

As a team, we want to build momentum coming into Murrayfield. It's hugely important to us, the fans and the SRU that we perform well there. So we need to start building towards that in London.

There is no name on the Cup for this weekend - and there's no reason that it can't be ours.

Roddy Grant was speaking to BBC Scotland's Joanne McKillop.

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