IF you happen to glance across at your neighbour in the stand at Murrayfield on Sunday and see a well-built bloke in an overcoat, dark glasses and a conspicuously false beard, then the chances are you're sitting beside Richie Gray.
Not the Scotland second row, but the bloke from Galashiels who has been doing a shift as South Africa's specialist breakdown coach for the past few months. Gray has been credited with transforming what has traditionally been one of the weakest areas of the Springboks's game - when you are brought up on bone-hard pitches, you generally avoid going to ground - but he is in for one of the more uncomfortable afternoons of his life as he watches his charges put their new-found knowledge to use against the country of his birth.
"It must be a tough week for him," said South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer. "Richie is a proud Scottish guy and he loves his country, but he has had an opportunity with us and he's really done well, being South Africans, we never contested well on the ground, but we won most balls on the ground in the Rugby Championship this year."
Drafting Gray - he and Meyer have been friends for many years - is a tacit acknowledgement by the South Africans that they have to expand their game and their options if they are ever to enjoy a period of prolonged ascendancy over New Zealand. The Springboks might have been the masters of Route One rugby since the year dot, but they have never matched the All Blacks' talent for taking an alternative path when needs demanded.
"We are playing a more balanced game now," said Meyer. "We can maul, we can attack, we can bash it up if we need to. But if you don't get quick ball at this level the defences are set and you can't go forward."
As a consultant rather than a permanent member of the coaching team, Gray will not watch Sunday's game from the coaching box. "I'm crazy enough in the box," joked Meyer. "I don't need a crazy Scotsman next to me, especially playing against Scotland." But as he struggles to reconcile his heart and his head, the chances are Gray will be watching South Africa play a rather different game to the one Meyer was preaching.
For whatever he said about the joys of quick ball, Meyer gave a powerful indication that South Africa will revert to a style more in keeping with their stereotype. Specifically, he has named Willem Alberts, an old-school stopper, ahead of Siya Kolisi on the flank, while the hefty second-row combination of Bakkies Botha and Flip van der Merwe would not have looked out of place in a 1950s Springboks side.
The Test career of 34-year-old Botha seemed to have petered out a couple of years ago when he upped sticks and signed for the star-studded collective that is Toulon. However, Meyer believes that the 2007 World Cup winner, who for many years was almost literally joined at the hip to Victor Matfield in the South Africa second row, can still do a shift for his country and believes the player's appetite has been sharpened by his absence from the fold.
However, the coach admitted Botha still has to prove he is up to it. Meyer said: "Bakkies has been brilliant with the team. He has brought some fresh vibes and he has been great with the youngsters. We now want to see what he can do, if he can still play for South Africa.
"He has been really good in training, very impressive. I've coached Bakkies since he was about 20 years old and he is now in the best condition I've seen him. He's lost a lot of weight and he is fit and mobile again.
"He wants to play for his country going forward, but guys need to show that they are still good enough for South Africa. But he has been great for the team. He's here to serve and the way he has talked to the youngsters and got them up has been great. But it is up to him now."
Pat Lambie, a distant relation of the former Scotland captain Peter Brown, has been brought into the side at fly-half after Morne Steyn suffered a back problem during last weekend's 24-15 victory over Wales in Cardiff. Lambie has talent to burn, but he lacks Steyn's all-round authority, and Meyer all but admitted that the player has much to do before he can nail down the playmaker berth as his own.
"He knows he needs to take more control, but he is working hard on his game," said Meyer. "Pat is a great defender in the 10 channel and he will always put his body on the line. He knows this is a big game for him."
In total, Meyer has made five changes, one positional, to the side which won in Wales. One area he has not touched, however, is the three-quarter line. But then why would you when your four players are Bryan Habana, Jean de Villers, Jaque Fourie and JP Pietersen? Pietersen will win his 50th cap on Sunday, but he is almost a rookie as Habana will be winning his 94th, De Villiers his 95th and Fourie his 71st.
That adds up to a staggering 310 caps. Between them, they have scored a staggering 124 Test tries. No wonder they want quick ball.
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