The record books will show that Scotland capped 10 new players over the course of their three matches in the 2013 Castle Lager Incoming Test Series.

Some – Peter Horne only the most obvious – were well overdue; others – most notably Fraser Brown – were probably premature. But the feeling in Pretoria on Saturday evening was that all will return home as far better players for the experience.

So who should we anoint as the find of the tour? Tim Swinson, the hard-as-nails Glasgow lock who outmuscled the Springboks on the Lowveld last week? Tommy Seymour, the workaholic wing? Alex Dunbar, the new powerhouse in the Scotland midfield?

It is a rich slate of candidates. But there is – quite literally – a left-field contender as well. At 32, with 79 caps to his name and in his 10th season of international rugby, Sean Lamont is past the stage of sweeping up Most Promising Newcomer awards, but there is a powerful case for declaring the wing's form to be the most significant development of these past three weeks in South Africa.

With just nine tries in his 76 Scotland outings before he arrived in South Africa, Lamont was never in much danger of being described as prolific. However, he returns home with another two added to his haul – one apiece against Samoa and Italy – and his reputation as a finisher restored.

More importantly, his appetite and all-round eagerness have been replenished, a development, he willingly admits, that has a lot to do with the competition he now faces in club and country colours.

"I don't want players to just turn up and think they are in the Scottish team," said coach Scott Johnson on Saturday evening. "I want them to have to fight to get there. I think it is starting to turn now. I think we have got a lot out of [this tour] and I think it was worth doing."

In little more than a year, Lamont's competition for Scotland wing berths has been swollen by the arrival of Tim Visser, Tommy Seymour, Duncan Taylor and Sean Maitland, all of whom have won first caps in that period. Since his own debut – against Samoa in Wellington in June 2004 – Lamont has never known a rivalry like it. And he has never reacted so well.

"I am hanging in there," smiled the improbable Peter Pan. "I have my targets I want to hit. I want to do the 2015 World Cup. The young guys are good for me as it means I have to up my game. I have to keep going.

"One of the reasons I left Glasgow in the first place [in 2005, to move to Northampton] was because I was coasting. I like to push myself. If you get complacent it burns you.

"So the more boys coming through the better, especially in the backs. We need them. I like to keep the coaches thinking."

Actually, Johnson has not had to think too hard about Lamont, as he has picked him for every game he has been in charge of since he took over as head coach in December. And if that pattern continues then Lamont could conceivably become Scotland's second centurion – after Chris Paterson – if he does survive until the 2015 World Cup.

Johnson's admiration for Lamont is rooted in the player's demanding nature. There are some who would be satisfied simply to finish ahead on the scoreboard, but Lamont is not one of them. He acknowledged that the journey home – the Scotland team will touch down at Edinburgh Airport this morning – would be made more enjoyable by this narrowest of victories over Italy, but he was not minded to overlook that it was a deeply flawed performance.

"We were lucky," he said firmly. "There is not a shadow of doubt about that. We tried our hardest to muck it up. But the boys showed determination to squeak out a win.

"We are sick of the rollercoaster ride we go on and we were not clinical enough out there. But never doubt our perseverance. We will dog it out till the end, but we could have and should have put the game away by half-time."

The Scots had made things difficult for themselves right at the start, when a defensive muddle involving Seymour and Tom Heathcote allowed Leonardo Sarto, Italy's hirsute debutant wing, to announce his arrival in the Test arena with a try after just one minute. Over the next quarter of an hour, however, Scotland rallied well. Matt Scott delivered a try in the sixth minute and Lamont claimed his score in the 16th after Gio Venditti had launched a bold counterattack from behind his own line and was flattened in a tackle a mere 97 metres short of his intended destination.

But then everything went off the boil for Scotland. As so often happens against Italy, the game descended into a dogfight, a pattern that was not helped by Welsh referee Leighton Hodges' indulgent stewardship of the breakdown. Scotland held a 23-20 lead early in the second half, but that was turned into a 29-23 deficit by three Alberto Di Bernardo penalties by the time the time the clock ticked past the 80-minute mark.

At which point, the Italians began to celebrate. Bad move. They conceded a penalty near their 22, and Henry Pyrgos scampered off with the ball. It was recycled through the first breakdown, shovelled out to Al Strokosch, and the big flanker cantered past three mystified Italian players to claim only his second international try in 35 games. Greig Laidlaw had kicked flawlessly up to that point, and his calm conversion kept up his 100% record and secured the win.