Fly-half Lee Millar believes the building blocks are in place for London Scottish to start knocking on the door for promotion to the Premiership sooner rather than later, writes Pippa Field.

Scottish currently sit third in the Greene King IPA Championship with four wins from five with only Worcester – relegated from the Premiership last campaign – and last season’s table toppers Bristol above them.

While this term is still in its early stages, it’s fair to say Scottish have been building up a head of steam in recent years, improving season upon season from a ninth-place finish in 2012 to fifth last time around.

Millar himself is also intent on playing his part, signing a new two-year contract last March having impressed in the team since signing from Scottish side Gala in 2013.

The 23-year-old, who notched up 110 points in 21 appearances last season, opened his account for this year with two tries in their 64-16 home win over Plymouth Albion last time out and believes the team can be serious contenders soon enough.

“I think promotion in the near future is definitely realistic, I think we’ve got the base to go further, if we get a big enough squad we’ll be right up there,” he said.

“You just take it one week at a time. You assess your injuries and then you go out the next week all guns blazing to try to get a win and we’re scoring a lot of tries at the moment.

“We’ve still got a lot to work on, still some handling errors are creeping in and we probably could have scored a few more against Plymouth, but the way it’s moving forward is really good.

“And if we can gel things together for a full 80 minutes that would be good. It’s definitely a step up from the Championship to the Premiership. You look at London Welsh at the moment; they’ve taken a lot of boys in and that kind of shakes things up.

“You can look at the play-offs both ways, it’s a good thing and a bad thing, but I think it’s working so far, and I think London Welsh will come right in the end.”

A product of Moray, Millar was widely regarded as one of the most talented players in Scottish club rugby before his move south to the capital.

He is not short of players to look up to at Scottish either, with captain and back rower Mark Bright in particular leaving his mark on the fly-half.

Bright has been named in the official RFU Championship Dream XV for the past two seasons while he made his debut for England Sevens at this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow at the age of 35.

And Millar insists his skipper shows no sign of slowing down.

“It seems like nothing can stop him, not his age and probably not 15 men,” added Millar. “He’s unbelievable, he leads from the front, it’s all you could want from any captain, so it’s great to have him here – he’s a great influence.”

* Formed in 2009, the Greene King IPA Championship is the second tier of professional rugby union in England. To keep up-to-date with all the latest news follow @ChampRugby on Twitter, or visit rfu.com/championship