WEEK one of the Springbok tour, they played well but lost; week two, they played badly and won. Week three – this week in Scotland – the aim is to get the best of both worlds, combining performance with the right result, says Rassie Erasmus, the visitors' head coach.

Not only are the Springboks on a high, arriving in Scotland on the back of a win when they recovered from 23-9 down to snatch victory over France in the 83rd minute, but they also seem to be getting the breaks on the injury front with Eben Etzebeth, the lock, who at one point thought his tour might be over after damaging a foot, now back in training and hoping to be available this weekend.

That means the only serious injury doubt in the tour party is Warren Whiteley, who has a calf problem. Props Vincent Koch and Frans Malherbe sat out the first training session in Scotland but are expected to be fit by the weekend. All of which has helped bring a little swagger back to the Springboks after games against New Zealand and England where they played the better rugby but lost by two points and one point respectively.

"Test match rugby is all about the result and sometimes you lose perspective about how well you have played," he said. "In the England game that we lost, we played well but did not win. We played better than in the French game we did win. Coming off a win certainly makes the start of the training week easier. That few seconds at the end [in France] was just enough for us.

"Sometimes the result blurs your view of the improvements being made. There have been a few, I’d say four or five Test matches, where we have been behind and we did have that belief that we could come back, even in the England game.

"You don’t always have to come back though; sometimes it is nice to have the lead from the beginning. It is encouraging that we can fight back, but we should not always be putting ourselves in that position. It should not be a trend."

Two other factors add to the intrigue in the build-up to the game. One is the number of South Africa-raised players in the Scotland ranks – Allan Dell, WP Nel and Josh Strauss from last week's squad were all born and brought up there while Huw Jones started his professional career there.

"I know WP [Nel] very well from his Stormers days," Erasmus said. "There are a few guys in Ireland, and other teams now, who are from South Africa but have taken the opportunity given to them [by another country] and done very well. Huw Jones is the same. I think it is a trend now in rugby."

The other factor is the personal battle between head coaches who know each other from PRO12 days. Erasmus was in charge of Munster for 18 months, overlapping with Townsend's final season with Glasgow Warriors.

"I have coached against Gregor Townsend a lot," he said. "One season Glasgow played Munster four times, so I know how he coaches and his style of coaching is certainly all about a fit team who are well organised.

"They are good offensively too so I know about them and what areas we need to focus on this week ahead of the game. None of them were easy games so I know about what he likes to do, but same for him he knows the way we [Erasmus and staff] are coaching. They [Scotland] have a lot of Glasgow players in their team so that is why I know it is going to be tough."

What he politely failed to mention is that Munster won all four of those games, though three of them were by three points or less. As he said, a win is a win regardless of how it is achieved.