International centre Ian Jardine was named Glasgow
Caledonians captain for the first time yesterday and immediately set his sights on emulating a
Stirling County club-mate in claiming a Springbok head.
Kevin McKenzie, who also faces South Africa tonight, led Scotland A to victory over South Africa at Melrose in 1994 and was rewarded with the prize which the Springboks give to captains of all sides who beat them.
''Matches like this are great opportunities for players,'' said the now 34-year-old Jardine, also a member of that winning A team. ''It's not every week you get to face a side of such quality and this is a great chance to beat them right at the start of a tour.
''Those of us who played that day still talk about it a lot. A lot of good memories come from an occasion like that.''
Indeed the superstitious in Springbok ranks may be slightly concerned about the prospect of a midweek visit to Scotland.
Following that 17-15 A team win, clinched by Duncan Hodge's drop goal in the dying seconds, South Africa A lost 32-19 at Hawick two years ago, Hodge contributing 10 points that time.
One with more mixed memories of South Africa is Derrick Patterson having made his Test debut when Joost Van Der Westhuizen ran amok at Murrayfield in 1994.
Partnered, at half back, by South African Luke Smith, Patterson hopes, after a month out with a groin injury, to complete 80 minutes for the first time this season.
Coach Keith Robertson is looking for leadership from his new look midfield, Jardine partnered at centre by John Leslie.
Though not fit for this match, another of Scotland's Kiwi imports, Glenn Metcalfe, is set to resume full training and hopes to play when Fiji visit Glasgow Caledonians on November 24.
Meanwhile, yet another kilted Kiwi, Aaron Collins, switches superteams tomorrow after Robertson agreed to release him to play for Edinburgh Reivers against the Maoris.
''We had a bit of a problem after Graham Shiel was injured again on Sunday with Alan Tait and Jamie Mayer in the Scotland squad. We're hoping Aaron will help strengthen our midfield,'' said Reivers coach Ian Rankin.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article