Scotland coach Frank Hadden was given reason to cheer on Thursday after seeing all but one of his injured players return to training.

The 56-10 defeat of World Cup debutantes Portugal in St. Etienne on Sunday had left its traces on a number of Scotland players.

Lock Nathan Hines (bruised ankle and knee), flanker Allister Hogg (dead leg), winger Sean Lamont (ankle) and full-back Rory Lamont (bruised shoulder and hip) all picked up knocks in the weekend win and missed training both on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Centre Andrew Henderson’s dead leg had ruled him out of the Portugal match, while scrum-half Rory Lawson “tweaked his back” during a weights session earlier this week.

Hadden would therefore have been delighted to see only one of the injured clan – Sean Lamont – not feature in training on Thursday.

And the Northampton star is expected to be back on Friday for the Scots’ penultimate practice session before they return to Edinburgh on Sunday, ahead of Tuesday’s Pool C match against Romania.

The older Lamont brother was not the only squad member to be absent from training at L’Etrat, a village to the north of St. Etienne.

Gavin Kerr missed out as he was sitting a surveying exam in Lyon, but the prop will be back in training on Friday, a Scotland spokesman confirmed.

The squad were interested observers last night as the Romanians took Italy all the way in their pool match in Marseille.

The Azzurri ground out a 24-18 victory to earn their first points of the campaign but they failed to claim a bonus point.

And Daniel Santamans’ men did enough to suggest they will be no pushovers next week, unlike the last time Romania came to Murrayfield – in November last year – when they were thrashed 48-6 by the Scots.

“I wasn’t really surprised (with last night’s score line) because Romania are a physical team and they can do some damage,” said Rory Lamont.

“The last time we played them, they were missing a lot of their players who play in the French league so we know it will be a lot tougher when we play them next week.

“Italy have some great forwards, and for them to struggle like they did last night shows that Romania are a strong team. We obviously know about their pack and their scrum but they have other good players.

“And having watched a lot of the games in this tournament, it is only New Zealand, Australia and South Africa who are really hammering teams.

“Everywhere else it is pretty tight. You saw Ireland struggle against Namibia, so you can’t expect many hammerings any more.”

On the failure of the Italians – Scotland’s major rivals for second spot behind New Zealand in the group – to claim the bonus point against Romania, Lamont noted the importance of a bonus point.

“You never know if it will be important if it comes down to a tight game between us,” he said

“In the unlikely event of a draw, that could get us through.”

Scotland’s win over Portugal has been the stand-out result in the World Cup as far as the home nations are concerned.

Both England and Ireland struggled to see off USA and Namibia respectively, while Wales were 17-9 down to Canada before a late flurry of tries saw Gareth Jenkins’ side grab a 42-17 win.

Lamont, who will play for Sale Sharks in the Guinness Premiership next season, believes it is only a matter of time before the home nations find their feet.

“As far as we are concerned, we have only played three games this season. Before that, our last games were in the Six Nations,” added the full-back, a scorer of two tries against Portugal.

“That is definitely an element, that we are ring-rusty. From a team perspective, it is a long time since we have played together so I think as we play more games, we will get better.

“And I think that will be the case with the other home nations.

“We are satisfied with the result against Portugal – we got a bonus-point win. We have things to work on but it definitely highlighted what we have to improve on.

“Winning against Romania will be the most important thing, but if we get the right performance, the result and the bonus point will come.”

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