“Records? They're just another number.” Chris Paterson is in typically modest mood as he contemplates his achievements while closing in on a unique hat-trick of records. The first of those will almost certainly be equalled today when Frank Hadden, the Scotland coach, announces that Paterson will match Scott Murray as Scotland's most capped player.

Yet, with all that experience, and all those achievements, Paterson still says that he has yet to play a game he is completely satisfied with. Which is remarkable because he is only 11 points behind the 667 that give Gavin Hastings the individual scoring record for Scotland and, barring injury, he will overtake the former Scotland captain in the course of this tour to Argentina. Paterson is also on 22 tries, two short of catching Tony Stanger and Ian Smith as the top Scottish try-scorer of all time.

“If I make it, it will be just another game, a number,” Paterson reflected yesterday the team's Buenos Aires hotel after their latest training session. “It is just the next job I am asked to do. I think you look back on these achievements and will be happy to have achieved them, but you don't think about them at the time.”

He knows that all the record breaking in the world may earn him a place in history but that come Saturday, it will still feel dreadful if he matches or passes the personal landmarks but the team were to lose.

“It is not an unusual position for us,” he said. “You look back at all those years and you see how many big crunch games there have been. This situation where we have to get a result at the weekend is nothing new, it's been common for us to have so much riding on the next game. There have been so many peaks and troughs for us, we have always suffered from being inconsistent.

“You look back at the World Cup games against Italy and Fiji, and so many others. Because you play for Scotland and we have been inconsistent for a number of reasons - not always bad, sometimes we have played well above ourselves - this keeps happening, not just in rugby but in all Scottish sport. There is a lot riding on this weekend but we have a young squad, a young team and this is another starting point.”

All of which was true back in 1999 when Paterson won his first cap against Spain, at full back, where he will probably again feature again in the team being announced today, and has remained true ever since. He is likely to be joined by three new caps, with Matt Mustchin's match fitness likely to put him ahead of Alastair Kellock, who has not played since January, while Ben Cairns and Thom Evans will join the backs.

Apart from that, given the absentees, it will be as close to steering a steady ship as Hadden can make it. The front row will be the same as those who did service in the RBS Six Nations Championship but Johnnie Beattie is expected to fill Simon Taylor's place at No8. Behind, it will be similar to the unit that faced Italy, with Cairns replacing Simon Webster and Evans coming in on the wing with Hugo Southwell missing out.

If any of them come even remotely close to matching Paterson, it would be a huge achievement, if only because of the way that he has kept reinventing himself, as full back, left wing, right wing, fly half, and the best goalkicker Scotland, and arguably even the world, has seen, with nobody able to match his 33 consecutive kicks stretching back through the entire World Cup and Six Nations.

“I don't think professional sport allows sentimentality,” he said. “I've never rested on my laurels. I think the reason I am approaching the record number of caps is because I have always tried to get better, I have never left the field feeling I have played as well as I can. I aim to keep improving. The hardest thing is trying to become a better player in two or three different positions.”