A few weeks ago, while having a wee smool around the BBC’s New Broadcasting House in London, I happened to bump in to Carol Kirkwood, she of morning weather maps and forecasts, a chance meeting, which I should say, has merited more interest than saying I’ve met both Ronaldos (although not at the same time).

However, while she may indeed be exact with her long-range predictions, you only need to speak to a current or former international rugby player to get a near-accurate summary of what the weather around EH12 during the Autumn International season.

Moist and windy (without sounding too much like Stephen Fry) is the general consensus, or at least it is for former Springboks 15 Thinus Delport who reckons such elements might play in to Scotland’s hands next Saturday.

“Scotland apply a lot of pressure, especially at the breakdown and no-one likes to play in the wind and the cold. The Scots are little bit more comfortable playing when it’s like that,” admitted the 18-times capped Delport. “That is another aspect where the South African players will have to develop. Every time matches are played in adverse weather, the Northern Hemisphere sides seem much more adept, and, appear to cope much better with that.

“If you look at Newlands, and the Third Test against England in June, it was rainy and windy and Ben Youngs, Danny Cipriani and Owen Farrell just took control of that game and our decision makers just weren’t able to match that. Scotland have similar players, so South Africa cannot allow them to dictate the tempo or direction of the match.

“I think the whole opinion has changed in 10 years about Scotland. You look at recent results, especially at Murrayfield, and overall against South Africa, and they have performed well, and I’d imagine this is a key pointer to what might happen next year for both Scotland and the Springboks,” said the former Gloucester and Worcester full-back.

This far in the Autumn series, Delport is happy enough with how South Africa have performed on this trip.

“We haven’t played badly. However the absolute minimum we can accept now from this tour is two wins, not easy after France yesterday and knowing Scotland then Wales await.

“There was a lot of expectation around the supporters and the team that they were going to progress from the form they showed against New Zealand during the summer, when they won an amazing match in Wellington – with a first-half which was one of the most complete displays by any side in world rugby in the last decade - and only just lost in Pretoria during the summer in the Rugby Championship, even though there had been some indifferent form, beating Argentina and Australia at home but losing away.

“First up in the Autumn Tests, we overpowered England, having more territory, more possession and ultimately more chances, especially from the set piece which is our strongest attacking platform, that we didn’t take through bad execution. The game then should never have come down to being decided by a contentious decision and us not getting a penalty for that Owen Farrell tackle. We had the opportunities to win it long before then. The game should have been put away in the first half. That was the real disappointment for me and many South Africans. Our consistency needs to be addressed.”

A veteran of the 2003 World Cup, Thinus believes the current squad touring Europe will provide the backbone of the 2019 World Cup party, and, be the ones challenged with making the perfect start in Japan, where Delport played for two years with Kobelco Steelers.

“The core of the team will be at World Cup,” added Thinus, a regular on Sky Sports and Premier Sports. “It’s a long way off, but I don’t think there are any real outsiders likely to break through.

“The Twickenham Test fell outside the recognised window for international games, so we played without our English Premiership players like Faf de Klerk, Willie le Roux, Franco Mostert Vincent Koch and Francois Louw, all recognised starters. Allowing for injuries, the guys on this tour will make up the majority of the squad for Japan.

Looking to next year, so much hinges on our opening World Cup match against New Zealand. We should be able to pull on the experience and knowledge we took from this summer’s matches. We can turn them over but that is easier said than done.”