You would think a man born in Nashville would have a taste for country music, but the look of queasiness that spreads across Tommy Seymour's face at the first mention of Dolly Parton is a clear indication that his musical tastes lie a safe distance from the world of stetsons, line dancing and lachrymose ditties about faithful old labradors about to croak their last.

In any case, "country" is a pretty flexible term for Seymour. His first breath may have drawn in the sweet air of Tennessee, but his peripatetic parents, one English and one a Scot, gave him a globetrotting upbringing that included spells in Northern Ireland and Dubai.

The winger's accent gives a hint of that multinational background, but nobody in the Murrayfield crowd cared two hoots about Seymour's origins when he twice crossed the line on his home debut to help Scotland to a 42-17 victory over Japan.

Quite aside from the fact his mother Sue is a born and bred Glaswegian, you would hesitate to accuse Seymour, who retains his place for today's clash with South Africa, of using the saltire as a flag of convenience. When he arrived at Glasgow three seasons ago he had no more thoughts of playing Test rugby for Scotland than he did of joining a Hank Williams tribute band. "It was about trying to build a club career for myself and playing the sport I love," he says.

Before his move, Seymour had been a peripheral figure in an Ulster squad that had back-three talent to burn. His switch to Glasgow could easily have turned into a frying-pan-to-fire move, for he had no way of knowing Warriors would soon have players of the calibre of Sean Maitland, Stuart Hogg and DTH van der Merwe on the books.

That things have worked out so well for Seymour owes much to a relentless thirst for improvement and something close to self-loathing after a poor display.

But the Japan game was not one of those, right? Wrong. Seymour makes it clear he did not don a hair shirt for the after-match reception or give the cat a good kicking when he got home. However, as he replayed the game in his mind he did not focus on the two tries he scored, but the one he felt he let in.

Granted, Usain Bolt would have struggled to get close to Kenki Fukuoka as the quicksilver Japan wing scorched away for the first of his two tries, but Seymour feels he could have done more to obstruct him.

"For me, it was great to get off the mark and get a couple of scores," Seymour says. "But there was a lot of rustiness there, from the backline as a unit, but a lot from me as well.

"Defensively, I pride myself on not making mistakes. No player enjoys making mistakes but it is something I find it a little bit harder to get over than most, so defensively I wasn't too happy.

"I feel I have been a lot more sound for Glasgow this year and it is something I pride myself on, so that was definitely my main focus leading into this week.

"Unfortunately, the defensive side of things took the shine off it a little bit for me, but at the same time it is a great reality check. I didn't think I was going to go through a dream home debut and have everything go perfectly, but I have definitely taken my lessons out of that and am looking to perform massively this week."

Too harsh? After all, you don't come across players like Fukuoka every week. Well, actually you do at this level, as Seymour's date this afternoon is with Bryan Habana, a man whose 53 Test tries mark him out as the most prolific international winger on the scene.

Yet Seymour has done his homework and does not seem unduly worried by the challenge he faces. "You know what you are going to come up against with South Africa," he shrugs. "It's not a massive mystery now. The physical side to their game is something they rely on.

"They're going to hit you big, they're going to hit you high, and you just have to make sure you attack them in the right areas of the park so you don't get embroiled in an arm-wrestle, which is what they want. They looked handy against Wales. With guys like Habana in the backline you have to be wary that threats can come from anywhere. While they like to be a straight up- and-down team, they have the ability to go from one end to the other very quickly."

If defensive alignment is going to be so critical today, can we expect a chorus of Stand By Your Man in the dressing room beforehand? Maybe not.