Since the World Cup draw was made a year ago, every meeting between Scotland and the top seeds in their pool has taken on a new meaning and it was clear that was uppermost in the mind of the visiting coach yesterday.

Holder of one of the most pressurised jobs in sport as the man in charge of a team that needs to win matches rather than simply wanting or hoping to, Heyneke Meyer is laying his plans for the tournament on the foundations of his side having achieved and, indeed, surpassed his target of winning 75% of their matches this year.

He was consequently entitled to be highly satisfied with this performance from the team he sent out to improve on their rather scratchy defeat of Scotland in June, having changed no fewer than 12 of the starting XV.

"I was very happy with that great drive right from the kick-off. It just shows you can play that kind of rugby in these conditions," he said. "We weren't happy with the way we played in Nelspruit and even last year here and I really thought we made a step up, especially in these conditions.

"Unfortunately in the second half the rain made it very difficult, but we need to play in these conditions, that's what the World Cup's going to be played in, the same type of conditions, so I'm very happy with the team."

The bad news for Scotland is that there is no question of them being sufficiently pleased with this year's work that they intend to give their rivals, whom they will meet again next summer as well as in the World Cup, any chance to catch up.

"To sum up, I'm very, very happy with the way the team is progressing, winning games and playing great rugby but we know there is still a long way for us to go. We'll keep on improving and we've got very high standards for ourselves, but we're very happy with the team at the moment," he said.

By contrast there was candid acknowledgement from within the Scottish camp that they have gone backwards since that previous meeting with the Springboks but, for by no means the first time in history, a Scotland head coach suggested that the difference could at least partly be attributed to the timing of these matches.

"They are two different teams," said Scott Johnson, when asked to draw comparison between these home-and-away encounters.

"We had quite a few of our No.1 back division out and it's a good chance for others to stand up. They [South Africa] have come a long way in the [souther hemisphere international] Championship and we're just starting our Championship, so we meet in different circumstances, different times."

Johnson believed the principal difference between the teams was the South Africans' capacity to take their chances allied to the generosity of their hosts in the early stages.

"We showed when we get possession we can hold them, we can do that," said Johnson. "We got punished on our mistakes. They were very, very clinical. They took their chances and did very, very well. The maul for the first try was wonderfully set up and then a great try off a missed tackle from kick off and they scored at the other end. Then we turned over and they scored a 60-metre try so there was a lot of us in that as well."

However, as he seeks to build his team's confidence for Saturday's last opportunity to impress in this autumn Test campaign, Johnson claimed they had done well to respond in adversity.

"We were up against a pretty good side that took every one of their chances,. We said at half-time we've dug a big hole here. We don't want to keep digging and I think we didn't keep digging, we filled in a bit."