A rare home loss in recent times and another near miss against one of the sport’s traditional powers offered yet more evidence that Scotland can now compete with any opposition on their own pitch, but it was the Springboks who claimed a victory that will reinforce their belief that they are on course to contend at next year’s World Cup.

Ahead of the match the two camps had offered very different analysis of where these visitors currently rank.

The Scottish contention was that to beat them would represent the scaling of new heights, surpassing the defeat of then world no.2 England earlier this year, on the basis of South Africa’s performances against the All Blacks when winning and losing by two points apiece a couple of months ago.

Rassie Erasmus, the tourists’ head coach who took on that role only this year, had a very different take on that, however, seeing his team as very much a work in progress as the Springboks continue to recover from the worst period in their rugby history. Even now, they must beat Wales next weekend to end 2018 with a better than 50 per cent winning record on the year, way behind Ireland’s 10 wins in 11 matches and New Zealand’s 11 in 13, bearing out Erasmus’s view that the current top two, who did battle in Dublin on Saturday, are well clear of a pack of seven other teams who are all capable of beating one another on the day.

“We’re definitely not the finished product, but we’re definitely growing into a better team,” he observed, afterwards.“We won’t get carried away, because we lost against Argentina away, we lost against Wales in Washington.”

This shrewd and knowledgeable man has now pitted his wits against Gregor Townsend five times as a coach and come out on the winning side each time, but has shown great generosity of spirit throughout in pointing out that most have been encounters that might have gone either way.

“I really believe Scotland is a force in world rugby, not just because we feel good that we beat them, but if you look at their recent results,” he further asserted. “To smash Australia by 50, to beat England here, to push New Zealand within five, six points. The world rankings currently doesn’t reflect how tough it is to play against them. This game in the dying minutes we could have lost.”

They did not, though and his astuteness also came through in his analysis of the importance of scoreboard control and the way his men handled being short-handed after full-back Willie Le Roux was yellow carded, a decision which looked as harsh as his captain, Siya Kolisi may have been fortunate to stay on the pitch after an apparent butt on Peter Horne with the back of his head.

“When the Scottish team got a roll on you could feel this gulf of Scottish fans getting behind them and I guess if we allowed that to continue we would probably have gone into our shells and maybe felt the pressure a little bit,” Erasmus said of the environment.

“Especially when we had the yellow card, when Willie went off, I thought if they got a roll on there we were in trouble and I thought that’s where we won the match when we got six points and they couldn’t really use the crowd as 24th man, in my opinion.”

The match might have changed had Scotland ever got in front but, just as in Wales, there was once again a sense that as resilient as it largely now is, when their defensive line is punctured they concede points rather more easily than the very best in the sport, Jesse Kriel’s sixth minute try a prime example as the centre finished a move initiated by man-of-the-match Handre Pollard 60 metres down the pitch.

Scotland’s response was memorable Huw Jones taking huge strides down redemption road after his horrors in Cardiff, with two delightful behind the passes, but Pete Horne deserving at least as much credit for the way he recovered from being tackled to the ground when delivering giving his midfield partner the chance to deliver the first of them, to be on Jones’ shoulder to apply the finish.

That was the first of three times they would level the scores, the remaining highlights coming in the first half with a try from Pollard, again all too easily finished after Jones turned over the ball in attempting to launch an attack inside his own 22 and a typical Stuart Hogg counter-attack setting up the lineout opportunity from which Hamish Watson cleverly scored.

However, as they battled to overcome Springbok superiority in the collision and therefore the breakdown, it was the decision not to tie things up a fourth time that perhaps proved decisive, the Scots mistakenly believing the success they had enjoyed with an opportunist midfield maul, had provided the evidence that they could drive through a set Springbok maul defence from close range.

That decision only looked worse when, soon after, Finn Russell attempted a drop goal from just inside the Springbok half when other options were available. It just missed, but on what had already been one of the fly-half’s off days, all that could have been achieved was what would have been much more easily brought about by kicking the penalty goal.

That came after another Hogg-inspired counter, but the full-back then hobbled off with an injury that had been troubling him before he made that break and, for all that Townsend said afterwards that it was not thought to be a cause for concern, we were told something similar when, during Glasgow’s clash with Munster in September, he played on after suffering an ankle injury which was subsequently to require surgery.

In his absence it never felt like Scotland would find a way through in the closing stages, particularly once replacement Elton Janjies, taking over the kick duties after Pollard had missed a couple of chances to ease his side further clear, had knocked over his solitary shot at goal to give his side some breathing space in the closing minutes.