Scotland’s star braced for Springboks test in Pretoria

Darge, 26, faced South Africa for the first time on neutral territory in Marseille as the Scots lost 18-3 in a pool-stage match at the 2023 World Cup and he and his team-mates endured more disappointment 14 months later, in November 2024, when they went down 32-15 at Murrayfield.

“Both games, they were a hard team to play against,” said the Glasgow back-rower. “They do their things very well, the physicality side of things, the set-piece, the athletes within their side, they’re really trying to disrupt your play and take you away from your game around the breakdown and your own attack, so, yes, I definitely felt that.

“In terms of how it prepares you (for Saturday), I think there are bits from those games you can look at, but both teams are so different now and have evolved with different players.

“The pressure they put you under and the pressure that you feel, it’s hard to replicate until you get into the Test match.

“It’s definitely one of the toughest challenges going against South Africa at Loftus.”

Darge is used to playing in South Africa for Glasgow on league duty and one of the best moments of his career came at Loftus when he was part of the Warriors side that defeated Bulls there to win the United Rugby Championship grand final two years ago.

“I think it can help to have experienced that,” he said. “A lot of us have played at altitude before and know what to expect, but it’s a different set of circumstances on Saturday.”

Scotland appeared to be in the doldrums after their capitulation against Argentina in the autumn was followed by defeat to Italy in their Six Nations opener in February, but they have responded by winning four of their last five Tests to return to the top five in the world rankings for the first time in almost three years.

“In terms of our performance, we’ve been in a bit of a natural progression since the autumn and that’s continuing now,” said Darge.

“It was tough lessons obviously in the autumn. We were fairly vulnerable after that Argentina game in terms of how we were with each other and really trying to look at what we can learn and how we can improve.

“There’s been things that we’ve learned in those meetings, particularly around the momentum side of the game. Obviously, that Argentina game, the momentum really went against us.

“We’ve had some learnings and we’ve had some good results, but there’s plenty to work on even from the weekend.”