​Borderer Darcy Graham expected to be available for selection for Scotland national rugby team’s autumn test v Portugal

​The 27-year-old might well miss that one too, however, as head coach Gregor Townsend is planning to field a rejigged team against opponents ranked 15th in the world.

“Darcy trained with us on Saturday, no contact, so he’ll be good to go,” said the 51-year-old. “I believe he will be available. It’s just whether we decide to select him or not.

“You’ll see a few changes at the weekend, for two reasons – one, it’s a six-day turnaround after one of the toughest encounters that we’ll face, and also there are a group of players that have been working hard the last two weeks who deserve an opportunity.

“We know there’ll be a lot of different personnel involved next week, and they’ve got to carry on the performance level that we’ve seen and deliver a result to put pressure on us as we’re putting a team together for Australia.

“There were a lot of good performances on Sunday night, but there’s a chance for guys to impress us next week against Portugal, and the six-day turnaround is really tough for our players after that performance.”

Fellow ex-Green Rory Sutherland was the only Borderer in Sunday’s Scotland side, coming on as a 61st-minute replacement for Pierre Schoeman at loosehead prop for his 34th cap.

This Saturday’s match kicks off at 3.10pm at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium and Scotland go into it ranked sixth in the world, up one place following their loss to the world champions at the weekend.

Townsend is due to name his match-day squad tomorrow, November 14, and a new-look line-up could yield a third cap for former Peebles hooker Patrick Harrison as he’s one of more than a dozen players yet to be given any game-time this autumn test series.

The 22-year-old, now with Edinburgh, made his international debut as a replacement in a 52-11 win away to Chile in July and featured in a 31-19 victory against Uruguay a week later too, also from the bench, scoring his first, and so far only, Scotland try.

Looking back over Sunday’s loss to the Springboks, ex-Gala and Border Reivers player Townsend said: “We adapted well.

“I think this team have grown mentally. They’re a lot stronger mentally and together at finding solutions and also believing that they can win a game, even if they're under the cosh.

“That was one of our best-ever performances and we’ve got to take that.

“That’s the baseline for when Portugal and Australia come and then there are two home games at the start of the Six Nations, with Ireland and Italy first up.

“I know we’ve also got to take the learnings from how we could have got more points on the board and won that game, but if our players perform like that, with that effort and that physicality, we’re going to have a good season.”

Right-winger Graham is currently on 40 caps and he’s his country’s second-top try-scorer of all time, with 28 – four of them racked up during his international comeback in the Scots’ 57-17 win over Fiji at the start of the month – just one behind his Edinburgh and Scotland team-mate Duhan van der Merwe’s 29.

Scotland’s fourth and last autumn test is hosting Australia on Sunday, November 24, with kick-off at 1.40pm.