Scotland v South Africa: Hugo Southwell optimistic Scots can have last word as they bid to bounce back from All Blacks rout

DIPPING into his French to pluck out the phrase 'Le Mot Final', Scotland full-back Hugo Southwell admitted yesterday that the style of Scotland's performance against South Africa at Murrayfield this afternoon will in itself apply 'the final word' to debates on just how poor the team was against the All Blacks.

That is largely because for all the highly-technical analysis the team and coaches have done on their numbing start to the 2010 EMC Autumn Test series, no-one, the squad included, knows what measure of improvement they can make until this afternoon's Test match is underway. But Southwell, who has been in fine form this season for Stade Francais, believes the team has at least moved on from the crushing feeling of last Saturday night and is in good heart and mind for the ferocious challenge coming their way today.

"In France we have a thing called 'le mot final' - the final word," he explained, "and it is when we do the video session of the game, come in and clear the air, say what has to be said, and then you move on and build for the following week.

"Obviously, there was not much for us to build on from the New Zealand game but we have to take the positives from the past year and build from there. We have a talented squad that will bounce back. We trained well this week and there is a good spirit in the changing room."

How exactly they bounce back is the crux, and as one of the experienced performers in the team, at 30 and with 55 caps, Southwell has been around long enough to know it will stem from a blend of two key ingredients in Test rugby - passion and astute tactical rugby.

"South Africa have a lot of ball carriers so if they get on the front foot and get quick ball it will be a long afternoon," he said. "But we will be hoping to put them under a lot of pressure. It will be frantic and there will be less space this week, but I believe there will be equally as many opportunities for us to exploit if we play the way we aim to.

"Against New Zealand we maybe tried to run too much ball and, hopefully, we will have a bit more balance to our game against South Africa. We have some good kickers and we have to use that to good effect, alongside our running game, but be aware that they also have an aggressive chase.

"(Bryan] Habana may not be playing but (Lwasi] Mvovo is aggressive and we have to be patient. We may not be able to attack from the first kick, it may be the second or it may be a bit of aerial ping-pong, but we have to play to our strengths.

"I was playing in Argentina and at the end of the Six Nations and it's been a vote of confidence to play here again, so I'm looking forward to it. I am playing well in France. I feel a freer rugby player in terms of expressing myself and I have played quite a bit of rugby (every league match so far] so just that is developing my game."

Keeping the veteran Chris Paterson out of the team, Southwell has to inspire from the back. That means as well as kicking securely and making the right decisions on when to attack from deep he must also settle Nikki Walker into the back three again and help new team-mate Joe Ansbro knit into the back line in a way that keeps the defensive line robust - as his channel is destined to be attacked early on - and allows him to be confident in contributing in attack.

Southwell is confident with those roles and hopeful Ansbro may present a new threat going forward that South Africa have little knowledge of.

"He is a top guy and a really relaxed guy, and he has been training with us all week," added Southwell. "He has played at the top level at Northampton and I'm looking forward to playing outside him and helping him through what will inevitably be a tough game.

"He's different to Max [Evans], but everything stays pretty simple. We're looking for him to put his mark on the game pretty quickly and knowing the type of guy Joe is he'll definitely do that.