HERE'S today's teaser.

Scotland play South Africa on Sunday; which set of coaches will have the greater number of Scots in their number? Trick question, they both have exactly the same — one each.

If you wanted to call it on seniority, then Duncan Hodge, lone Scot among a couple of Australians, a South African-Italian and a former Wales captain, has been there the longest and has the advantage of full-time contact. But, if you measure it in terms influence, while Hodge looks after kicking and catching, the South Africans believe Richie Gray, the former Gala captain, a breakdown and collision consultant, is helping to transform the shape of their team.

"He has been brilliant," was the verdict from John McFarland, whose role as the Springbok defence coach means he works closely with Gray. "We have known him for a long time. He has added real value, you can see our statistics are better in the breakdown area just for having a specialist in there. He has a big role defensively as well.

"We feel anything that can add value to the team, you take and add. It is about adding all those one percents at this level. In terms of breakdown steals we were third [out of four] in the Rugby Championship last year; we were top this year."

Though Gray was once employed by the Scottish Rugby Union as a development officer in the Borders area, he has been off doing his own thing for some time and, as Matt Taylor - McFarland's Australian-born opposite number in the Scottish camp - pointed out, it is no longer rare for coaches to find themselves up against their home countries and former employers.

"I worked with him at the Borders and know him well," said Taylor. "He is a great guy. I have had a lot of discussions with him over the years in regards to rugby and it is great that he is doing such a good job with South Africa. It is just the way professional sport is. He has been given his opportunity; next week [when Scotland play Australia] I'm up against two guys I worked with at the Reds for a number of years [Ewen McKenzie, head coach, and Jim McKay, attack coach]."

When you look at it logically, Gray's involvement with the Springboks can only be a good thing for Scottish rugby. Scottish coaches have not exactly been the hottest ticket in town when it comes to filling top-level vacancies - Gray and Hodge are the only ones working at international level while Gregor Townsend is the only Scot to be a club head coach - and there are only a handful holding down assistant coaching roles.

After that, you are looking at the likes of Taylor - whose parents are from Dunfermline and who played for Scotland A during a career that earned him spells in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and the Borders - as the nearest thing to a home-grown coach, though he learned his trade back in Australia before joining Scotland a year and a half ago.

Not that such matters of principle are of much concern to the current coaching group, who believe that since the Scots gave South Africa a fright in the summer tour, the visitors have, if anything, improved and are closing the gap on New Zealand in terms of the quality of their play. They demonstrated as much in the brutal fashion they demolished Wales at the weekend without picking up any significant injuries apart from a back spasm suffered by fly-half Morne Steyn before the game. It is not expected to keep him out of a action for more than a couple of days.

Meanwhile, Scotland were having a mixed time of it seeing off Japan. "There were things we were happy with; some of the attack shape was good and some of the effort in defence was good though we did concede those two tries, which was not great," said Taylor.

"We are reasonably positive but, to beat South Africa, we will have to raise the bar in terms of intensity and get some structures right. Against South Africa last time we did a pretty good job but they have improved their breakdown."

He was still waiting to hear the result of the scan on Matt Scott's hand. "Losing him would be a concern, but it is one that every rugby team has to deal with. If he is out, he is out and someone else will get an opportunity," Taylor added.