Malcolm is also sure delivering a strong Six Nations, starting at home to Wales on Saturday, can help propel Scotland to a good showing at the World Cup in England later this year.

"I think as players, we'd be lying if we said it wasn't in the back of our minds," said Malcolm, who is leaving club side Loughborough Lightning after eight years to pursue a new challenge.

"That is always going to be something in a World Cup year, whether it be thinking about selection, thinking about injury, all the bits that can be kind of niggling at you.

"What we have within this group and within this squad is a group of players who are just so passionate about taking Scotland to as high a level as we possibly can. Us qualifying for the last World Cup was history in itself.

"I think what we've achieved between that World Cup and this one is pretty phenomenal in terms of world rankings hitting our highest point, record numbers of wins.

"We truly believe that we're in a position that we can get one stage further at least.

"We've definitely got a little bit of a bitter taste in our mouth when we think back to that time, because I definitely think we didn't achieve to our potential at that World Cup, and that's ultimately the aim here, but that starts now.

"We need to get the most out of this Six Nations. So as best we can, we have our heads on this tournament, but we're not shying away from the fact that we have to get a lot of things in place now to put us in the best possible position to go and perform in August."