Scotland's record points scorer Chris Paterson has paid tribute to the coaching skills of his former boss at Edinburgh, Andy Robinson.

Paterson said of the new Scotland head coach: "He is very fair and very hard and he is probably the best coach I've worked with in my professional era.

"He got the best out of me at Edinburgh last year. There's still more to come.

"I still feel fresh and fit and I'm looking forward to working with him and with whoever comes in at Edinburgh."

Full-back Paterson was voted player of the season by the Scotland Rugby Supporters Club.

The 31-year-old rediscovered his best form with Edinburgh under the guidance of Robinson, who, Paterson claims, has a talent for transferring rhetoric into something to which players can relate.

"Everyone has that winning mentality, but what Andy does is stress that to everyone," said the kicker, capped 95 times by his country.

"He can transfer what he means by 'winning mindset' into action, into meaning; he can transfer that into your skills, into your understanding of the game and into the intensity of the game."

If you can get used to winning then hopefully it will make us a better side Scotland and Edinburgh full-back Chris Paterson

Edinburgh recovered from a disappointing start to finish runner-up in the Magners League last season and Paterson reckons that they will be a scalp for teams in the forthcoming campaign.

"There's a lot of expectation on us," he said. "People are more aware of you, more threatened by you. We have to push ourselves on further than we did last year.

"Although we were fighting for second place at the end of last season, let's be fighting for first in the coming season."

And whoever replaces Robinson at Edinburgh may choose to replicate his training schedule, which produced results as the season reached its climax.

"Usually at the end of the season the training tapers down, but not last year," said Paterson, speaking at a news conference to announce new sponsorship of Scottish Rugby.

"We trained bitterly hard until the end of the season and worked harder than anyone we played against and we ended up coming second in the league."

On Sunday, Robinson led Scotland A to victory over France A to claim the IRB Nations Cup in Bucharest.

Now Paterson hopes that the new Scotland coach can have the same effect with the full international side.

"We're good enough to beat anyone," he said. "We have beaten South Africa, England, France and Argentina away, but we haven't done it consistently.

"If you can get used to winning and get used to competing in big games then hopefully it will make us a better side."

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