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South Africa, with two World Cup triumphs and this year’s southern hemisphere title to their name, are the best, if only marginally ahead of Ireland. All the same, they don’t have the aura of the All Blacks when Richie McCaw ruled the rugby world. The truth is it’s congested at, and near the top. For me, the leading teams are South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand, France, Argentina, England and Scotland at present.

Things may look different after this November when we have seen how Ireland, Wales and Italy have fared. Last week’s match at Twickenham showed once again how narrow margins are. If I thought New Zealand deserved their two points victory, this was principally because they scored three tries to one. England indeed created very little, their only try coming from Marcus Smith’s daring interception.

The All Blacks played with more ambition, though their handling was far too often careless, escaping punishment only because of England’s inability to take advantage of their mistakes. It was a good game, though an odd one, surprisingly little taking place in either 22. Still, there is plenty of evidence that Steve Borthwick is putting together a team that will be very hard to beat, at Twickenham anyway.

What are Scotland’s chances against the world champions? Can we put aside the memory of the somewhat lifeless performance in the World Cup last year? That day the daring play for which Finn Russell and his merry gang are capable of was stifled by the Springboks rush defence and we were hardly in the match. Can it be different on Sunday?

One Scotland star of the still quite recent past suggested to me that we – Finn mostly – will have to kick more, but should kick low bouncing balls rather than high ones which would probably find the Springboks winning the aerial battle. It’s an interesting suggestion, at least. We know that this back division is capable, even in the regrettable absence of Darcy Graham, of scoring brilliant tries against anyone.

It is surely the best we have had in the professional era. Have we ever had a better pair of centres than Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones, the latter picked out this week by the former South African captain Bobby Skinstad as one of the best centres in the world, a man the Springboks should “be wary of”, not the sort of accolade given a Scotland centre since the days of Alan Tait.

Add to this Finn’s flair and generalship, and the try-scoring ability of Duhan van der Merwe, Blair Kinghorn and – if he is fit – Kyle Rowe, and it is hard to think of a more dangerous back-division, well promoted from scrum-half.

There are doubts of course about the ability of the pack to achieve parity with the Springboks. It has a very good front row, an excellent back row and in Grant Gilchrist and Scott Cummings two admirable and hard-working locks, capable probably of securing our own line-out ball. They do lack a bit of height, which means that we miss the sort of dominating line-out forward capable of stealing or at least disrupting the opposition jumpers.

South Africa will rightly start favourites. As World Champions, they’re entitled to so so, even away from home. Moreover they have greater strength in depth even if there famous “bomb squad” was not quite so dominant in this summer’s internationals. But there is less reason for the Scots to be daunted than in the past.

Even those of us who did not approve of the entry of the South African provincial teams into what is not the URC must now admit that it has been good for us, the experience of playing these provinces valuable. The Glasgow boys in the Scotland team will greet the Springboks with respect but with no sense of inferiority. Winning the URC title by beating the Bulls on the High Veldt was a tremendous achievement and they have since won again in Stellenbosch. Moreover, even if what has so far been a poor season, Edinburgh secured a handsome victory against the Stormers at Little Murrayfield.

South Africa will rightly start favourites They are entitled to so so against any northern team, except perhaps Ireland. But we have a real chance of winning and this is unusual.

The Twickenham match is also full of interest. Victory would mark the next step in Borthwick’s team’s progress after the last dismal years of Eddie Jones. Australia, almost unbelievably, are not ranked only tenth in the world, but a revival is due, and coached by a Joe Schmidt who did such marvels with Ireland, they will surely recover. A win at Twickenham would boost morale and might mean they had turned a corner.