Scotland skipper Mike Blair has lauded next year’s Lions opponents as even better than the South African World Cup winning team of October 2007.
The Edinburgh scrum-half, who has been widely tipped to be named in his first Lions squad for the 2009 tour, believes the current batch of Springboks are a more dangerous side than the one that lifted the William Webb Ellis trophy 13 months ago.
Scotland face South Africa at Murrayfield on Saturday as they look to bounce back from their 32-6 defeat to New Zealand last weekend, but Blair knows his side have a far from easy task ahead of them.
"The quality of the South African team is exceptional,” said Blair, who is among five nominations for the IRB World Player of the Year award.
“It’s stronger than the team that won the World Cup last year.
“There’s real threat throughout the team and the back row in particular.”
“You look at the first 10-15 minutes of the game against Wales and South Africa were outstanding.”
After taking on the Boks on Saturday, Scotland face Canada a week later in their third and final match of the autumn series.
