Former Springbok loose forward Bob Skinstad has singled out Huw Jones for praise ahead of South Africa’s Test against Scotland this weekend.

Jones is in fine form for his country running in two tries and two try assists against Fiji to back up his purple patch in the colours of Glasgow Warriors. Skinstad expects the centre to be a difficult player to deal with.

Star man

Part of Jones’ success comes from his brilliant partnership with captain Sione Tuipulotu in the Scottish midfield, forming the fan favourite ‘Huwipulotu’ pairing. The duo have been central to a lot of the team’s attack for the last couple of seasons.

Skinstad believes Jones, who represented the Stormers for several seasons, would fit into a South African side and labelled him as one of the best in the world.

“Huw Jones, for me, he’s been under-recognised as a player for a long time,” Skinstad told the BBC’s Scotland Rugby Podcast.

“I think Jones is probably one of the best centres in the world. I love the way he runs, I love the way he distributes. He’d fit into a South African team.”

Building depth

The Rugby World Cup winner also praised the depth Scotland have built in recent seasons.

“It’s not often that you can say, ‘let’s pick 12 of the opposition players who can fit into a world champion team’. But I would look across the Scottish guys and say they’ve certainly got a good run at eight or 10 guys who could turn out for another international team, which is fantastic.

“That means you’re in the top five, top six in the world, just by sheer weight of numbers of quality players.”

The depth of the national side comes from local success which has been evident through Glasgow Warriors’ United Rugby Championship title victory last season, an achievement orchestrated by Skinstad’s former team-mate Franco Smith.

“Franco is an interesting guy,” Skinstad said. “He’s curious and he’s interested, he’s very philosophical. He’s quite big picture orientated.

“He’s very good at the detail, but he doesn’t allow it to overwhelm him. I think he’s an amazing community leader there. I think the team are warming to him because he cares.