Colours: Blue
Major Honours: Five Nations Grand Slam (1925, 1984 & 1990), Four Nations (1886, 1887, 1889, 1891, 1895, 1901, 1903, 1904, 1907), Five Nations (1925, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1933, 1938, 1964 - shared - 1973, 1999).
Coach: Andy Robinson, a former England coach and assistant coach when they won the 2003 World Cup, took over as Scotland boss in 2009 from the axed Frank Hadden. Robinson had already been brought in to work with Hadden, in Argentina in 2008 along with Sean Lineen, the Glasgow coach, and there was a widespread belief that these two had more potential in the Test arena than Hadden. The former Merchiston Castle teacher had done his bit, lifted Scottish hope and players' belief, but Scotland needed an international animal at the helm, and chief executive Gordon McKie finally got his wish in June to bring in the English bulldog.
Robinson was officially appointed just before he took the Scotland 'A' squad to Romania in June for a first shot at the IRB Nations Cup, and he returned home with the trophy - Scotland's first piece of silverware since the 1999 Five Nations trophy.
Robinson is no magician and he will head into his first Six Nations as Scotland coach with similar headaches to his predecessors, missing key players, with Euan Murray, Allister Hogg and Simon Taylor among those unavailable.
Captain: Rival scrum-halves Mike Blair and Chris Cusiter were appointed joint captains of the Scotland team by Andy Robinson - the head coach does not believe in the principle of one captain for a team. Both Blair, capped 58 times, and 44-times capped Cusiter are captain of their respective clubs, Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors.
Blair, 28, replaced Jason White as Scotland captain in 2008 but it was Cusiter who led the team during the November Test series at Murrayfield in 2009. His was a winning start to international captaincy when Scotland beat Fiji 23-10, and he continued as captain for the next game, when Scotland beat Australia 9-8 (though injury forced him out of the contest after 21 minutes).
Players to watch: Andy Robinson handed Worcester centre Alex Grove a massive autumn opportunity to press his case for a permanent slot in his plans going forward. A strong defender and decent in attack, fellow up-and-comer Ben Cairns also has the potential to cause a stir as Grove's midfield partner. Watch this space!
Profile: Scotland has one of the great rugby traditions - hosts of the first international match, inventors of Sevens, dedicatedly amateur and sporting. But the expanding world of rugby power has not been kind to them.
There is not a big player-base and so players have been recruited from abroad, but despite lacking the massive resources of their larger neighbour to the south, Scotland have manfully carved out a unique place amongst the world rugby elite.
Indeed Scotland enjoys the distinction of being the first country to host, and win, the first ever-recognised rugby international in the world when they beat England in Edinburgh way back in 1871.
They enjoyed periodic success in the early days vying with Wales in the first decade of the 20th century. However, their Triple Crown win in 1907 would be the last for eighteen years as war and England intervened to deny them glory.
However, they won their first ever Five Nations Grand Slam in 1925 - the first year playing in their new Murrayfield home which is the home of Scottish rugby to this day.
The period after World War Two was not a successful one for Scotland, although they shared the Five Nations title in 1964 with Wales. They had to wait to until 1984 for glory when a win over France secured the Grand Slam.
However, their greatest year in the modern era was 1990 when, captained by David Sole, their season came down to one game, a Grand Slam decider at Murrayfield against the old enemy, and hot favourites, England.
Scotland also won the last-ever Five Nations Championship in 1999 with some dashing displays of 15-man rugby but endured a torrid 2000 Six Nations, losing their first four straight games. But then at the last hurdle, they pulled off a magnificent win over unbeaten England at a rain-soaked Murrayfield.
Since then things have been pretty bleak.
Scottish rugby has been thrown into turmoil by a row over the running of the sport, and the retirement of a number of key players has meant that standards on the pitch have dropped markedly. In fact, Scotland drew a complete blank during the 2004 Six Nations competition, cobbling together a meagre 53 points during their five losses. Since then, there has been an upturn in performance, even if results are still going against the Scots.
2009 saw Scotland record just one win in the Six Nations, but victory over Australia - ending a 27-year barren spell against the golds - will of course be savoured.