Scotland face a potentially painful exercise in damage limitation against a gifted South African side who come to Murrayfield today seeking an international record of 15 straight victories.
On and off the field, Scottish rugby's palpable failure to live up to expectations, despite heavy financial investment, has cast a pall over a fixture that, notwithstanding the Springboks' slow start against Wales a week ago, could easily turn into another embarrassing rout.
Statistics rarely tell the whole story, as the fiery Welsh demonstrated at Wembley. Yet on every front the Scots appear to be losing hands down in the numbers game. Since the Lions coach, Jim Telfer, replaced Richie Dixon in the Scotland job last January, his team have managed only one win (1716 over Ireland) in eight matches, including last week's non-cap international against the New Zealand Maoris, which was lost 24-8.
Today's attendance is expected to fall a long way short of Murrayfield's 67,500 capacity, a response to high seat prices, an unsuccessful national side and widespread disaffection with the professional game north of the border.
Mercifully, there is no talk of replacing Telfer, a full-time employee of the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) who happens to be one of the best coaches in Europe, but persistent speculation that Duncan Paterson, the SRU executive chairman, may shortly step down has been fuelled by Murrayfield's rising debts, which now amount to £17 million.
Telfer has responded to last week's setback by dropping two of his most respected Test stalwarts, Rob Wainwright and Tony Stanger, plus the centre Rowen Shepherd, who was thought to be upwardly mobile. In an effort to beef up the back row, he has recalled the experienced Newcastle flanker Peter Walton, who missed the summer tour in which the Scots lost to Fiji 51-26 and to Australia in both Tests, 45-3 and 33-11 respectively.
But Scotland's major shortcomings are behind the scrum, where an inability to achieve control and a lack of penetration restricted the team to a single late try by Derrick Lee against the Maoris.
Telfer has called up the Wasps wing Kenny Logan, and the Glasgow Caledonian centre John Leslie (son of Andy, the former All Blacks forward) to increase the firepower in the backs, but some critics complain the coach has not gone far enough.
Nick Mallett, the Springboks coach, expects his loose forwards to develop a much higher tempo than they achieved at Wembley, hence his decision to drop Andre Venter in favour of the pacy 22-year-old open-side Bobby Skinstad. With Christian Stewart also replacing Franco Smith at centre, the South African team have been given a ruthless "play for your place" message that Mallett believes will get them back to their no-nonsense best.
It is 29 years since Scotland beat South Africa, and all the evidence points to another humbling defeat, possibly by 50 to 60 points.
Still, if the Scots do spring a surprise and give the Boks their second examination in a week, the tourists' aura of invincibility will begin to crumble, much to the delight of their remaining opponents on this tour, Ireland and England.
