Coach Vern Cotter is adamant that Scotland’s summer tour has been a valuable exercise — despite the 55-6 thumping his team got in the final match against South Africa.

Cotter is bitterly disappointed with the result in Port Elizabeth — but with three wins from four games and 42 players used in the course of the trip, he has a much better idea of what resources he has and what needs to be done.

He explained: “The tour, in all, has given me the opportunity to see a number of players, assess the depth, get a good impression of what is available and what needs to be developed to become competitive — and we got three wins out of it as well.

“All in all, we got a good look at ourselves in the last game but we will put that in context of availablilty, the team, the end of tour and the end of the season.”