But the Scotland boss has been greatly impressed by the work put in by his players four weeks before the game against the Romanians at Murrayfield on November 11.

Hadden said: “The last few days have been tremendous.

“We have only had four days together so far this season and each day has been better than the last.

“The transition back into Scotland colours has been fairly seamless and we just cannot wait until November now.

“We have done enough over the four days to convince me we are ready to go now if necessary.”

But, while Hadden has praised the work of his training squad, the four-week wait until the season-opener will allow two key team members time to prove their fitness.

Nathan Hines was absent this week after sustaining a facial injury during Perpignan’s 10-25 defeat at Biarritz on Saturday.

The lock forward was felled a wild punch long after a minor scuffle had died down.

Hadden said: “It was a real cheap shot and it is very unfortunate he is missing at the moment because of that.

“He was getting a scan done on Monday and we are still waiting on that information.

“There was definitely some damage done. He was able to work that out despite his limited French from speaking to the radiographer, but the exact detail of how long he is going to be out for we do not know yet.

“We will have to wait on the scan to find out if it is going to rule him out of the autumn Test series, but hopefully not.

“The disadvantage of Nathan playing overseas is he spends less time mixing and communicating with the squad, so it would have been great to have him here. Unfortunately, it was not to be.”

Meanwhile, back-row forward Simon Taylor entered non-contact training with the squad for the first time since injuring his knee while playing for Edinburgh against Connacht last May.

The 27-year-old is unlikely to be available for the Tests but could make his Scotland return in the Six Nations next year.

Hadden said: “At the moment, I am not thinking about when exactly he will be available.

“He still has a bit to go in his rehab, but I will say he looked pretty sharp in training over the last couple of days.

“Simon is quite simply the toughest competitor we have. You cannot say anything more about him than that.

“There would not be many teams in the world he would not get in.”

The other notable absentee from the training session was Scott MacLeod, who has been out of action for two weeks since injuring his knee playing for Llanelli Scarlets against NEC Harlequins in the EDF Energy Cup.

Hadden added: “Our medics have had a look at him and have confirmed he has a medial problem.

“He is going for a reassessment from the surgeon down in Wales at some point later this week.

“It will be a few weeks before he comes back I would imagine.”