There was just one change among the 44 players who did service for Scotland and South Africa last weekend when the two coaches named their teams to play on Saturday. As expected, Rory Lamont replaces his injured older brother, Sean, in the Scotland side, and apart from that it was steady as you go for both sides.

However, there was a rather different feeling to the two announcements. While Peter De Villiers was able to bask in the comfort of his side having played below their best but still coming away with a victory, Frank Hadden had to confess that Scotland’s troubles in converting chances into scores were starting to “do my head in”.

Despite naming as close to the same side as possible, there are still some injury worries. Nathan Hines, Jim Hamilton and Thom Evans are still carrying knocks from the weekend and though they are expected to be fit, Alasdair Strokosch and Simon Webster are on standby.

The Scotland coach is talking up his side’s performance during Saturday’s 32-6 defeat by New Zealand, while admitting to frustration at the continuing trouble in crossing the whitewash. “You have to play well to create almost 15 reasonable opportunities to score against the All Blacks,” he said. “This weekend we are determined to turn these into points. We felt it was sensible to keep the side largely intact and try to iron out some of the rougher edges.” Almost as worrying was that, by yesterday morning, only 32,000 tickets had been sold, meaning that Murrayfield could be half-empty for the visit by the world champions. While was Hadden doing his bit by appealing for more support, and the union launched a last-minute cut-price deal for students to try to boost numbers, it would take a minor miracle for the final figure to match the poor attendance of 51,000 there last weekend.

One reason is that, after the last match, much of the optimism that had been built up over the summer has evaporated, and Hadden has a tough task in trying to build it back up again. “You don’t often get the chance to see the world champions in action,” he said. “We expect this weekend to be a more confrontational encounter than last weekend. It will be a tough afternoon, a very direct game, but we have the players that are aware of that and will be able to cope with it.”

All of which is undoubtedly true - the Springboks have made no secret that they are going back to a style closer to the one that won the World Cup than the one that lost the Tri-Nations - but to have any chance of even keeping the scores close, Scotland must solve the try conundrum.

“I hate it, it does my head in,” was Hadden’s reply when asked about it. “But you have to acknowledge that we created a lot of opportunities last weekend and in order to create that many chances you have to be doing a lot of things right. We are determined to turn them into points this weekend.”

For Rory Lamont, the one player to miss last weekend’s action and coincidentally the last Scotland player to score a try at Murrayfield when he touched down against Romania in the World Cup, the touchline analysis is that it is a confidence issue.

“It is a shocking statistic,” he said when his claim to fame was pointed out. “It is particularly frustrating when we are getting into positions to score but not taking them. It is tiny tweaks that can make a massive difference, but once it clicks, tries will come on a regular basis.”

By contrast, the Springboks were happy with the result from their first game but owned up to a level of rustiness that they feel has been put right by having a match under their belts.

“I trust the guys I have selected, I know they can do the job,” De Villiers said. “We don’t have a lot of time to experiment as this is a short tour, so picking the same team is the right thing. I know our best 22 and trust the guys will stand up for themselves. We did not play to our true potential in Wales, that is true, but these are still the number one players and one game does not make them bad players.”

How they line up for Saturday’s internationals

Scotland: C Paterson (Edinburgh); T Evans (Glasgow), B Cairns (Edinburgh), N De Luca (Edinburgh), R Lamont (Sale Sharks); P Godman (Edinburgh), M Blair (Edinburgh, captain); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton), N Hines (Perpignan), J Hamilton (Edinburgh), J White (Sale Sharks), J Barclay (Glasgow), A Hogg (Edinburgh). Replacements: D Hall (Glasgow), A Dickinson (Gloucester), M Mustchin (Edinburgh), S Gray (Northampton), R Lawson (Gloucester), D Parks (Glasgow), H Southwell (Edinburgh).

South Africa: C Jantjes; J-P Pietersen, A Jacobs, J de Villiers, B Habana; R Pienaar, F du Preez; T Mtawarira, B du Plessis, J Smit (captain), J Botha, V Matfield, S Burger, J Smith, P Spies. Replacements: G Steenkamp, B Mujati, A Bekker, R Kankowski, R Januarie, F Steyn, J Fourie.