When Hamish Watson runs out at Murrayfield to face the Wallabies he will be going in to battle with arguably the top loose forwards in the world.

David Pocock and Michael Hooper partner up in the flanker positions for Australia ready to bring their brand of disruptive mayhem to the Scottish capital.

Charged with stopping them in his first ever international test match start will be Edinburgh openside Watson - the in-form flanker who is keeping Scotland star John Hardie out of the starting XV for club, and now country.

The 25-year-old, who has two previous Scotland caps as a replacement, is not one to worry about reputations though. A star performer in Edinburgh's outstanding defeat of Harlequins last month, Watson is ready to stand toe-to-toe with the top players in rugby once again.

He said: "It's great, you want to test yourself against the best players in the world.

"Against Quins we played against a few Lions and a few England boys. All the Edinburgh boys stepped up that day.

"Saturday is going to be a massive challenge for me against Pocock and Hooper in the back row - but also across the whole field there are great players.

"You do a bit of review on them before the game and it is mentioned slightly but you don't want to get too caught up in it.

"The last thing you want is it getting your head, like 'oh my god this guy has 50 caps' or anything like that.

"When you are out there you have to concentrate on your game."

Head coach Vern Cotter has been full of praise for Watson since recalling him for the autumn test series.

He singled out the back row's ability to vary his game in attack and defence as a major improvement, and hopes Watson's lightning speed can prove a thorn in the Wallabies' side.

The player admits he has come a long way since his debut against Italy, where he earned a yellow card as the Azzurri earned a dramatic victory at Murrayfield.

Watson said: "When I got my first cap in the Six Nations [defeat to Italy] I still had a lot of things to work on in my game - I still do now.

"Back then I was a bit raw and Vern would pull me aside and give me stuff to work on.

"Having [Alan Solomons] there [at Edinburgh] helped as he picked me a lot and then having [Duncan Hodge] in charge for the last few games, he has expanded our attack a bit and that's really helped as well."

His development in Pro 12 rugby has been sharp since arriving at Edinburgh from the Leicester Tigers academy, where he was part of the Scottish Exiles scheme.

And Watson is quick to credit his teammates with helping him become a Scotland international.

He said: "I have been really fortunate to be at Edinburgh. When I arrived we had Alan 'Monkey' MacDonald , Ross Rennie and Roddy Grant - all these people I was learning from who were all great number 7s.

"When Rod retired I thought I was probably going to have the starting jersey and then 'Hards' came in.

"It was great though. Obviously you want to be playing every week, but you don't want to be the only one there, thinking 'I could probably get away with having a bad game'.

"Every game Hards or I play we know we have to be at our best."