Cusiter, who made his Scotland debut at the tender age of 21, is already an established international stand-off and will be looking to impress Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward during the Six Nations.

It has been an incredible story for the 22-year-old Borders star but, while the plaudits continue to come his way, he claims that keeping his starting place for Sunday's tournament opener against France is his only concern.

The level-headed youngster said: "I don't think I expected to be starting so early to be honest.

"I was quite happy to be on the bench at best so in that way I did exceed my expectations.

"But now that's all happened that's changed my viewpoint a wee bit and I am trying to get more games under my belt.

"First and foremost, my target is to get selected again. You can never be sure of anything these days.

"Last year I was hoping to be involved at some point but this year hopefully I will be starting all the games.

"That's up to me to play as well as I can and keep hold of the jersey and leave the rest to the selectors.

"I've heard things about the Lions tour but I don't think it's very helpful to look that far down the line.

"I just want to get selected for Scotland first and let everything else take care of itself."