Friday 24 November 2017 16:10, UK
Scotland captain John Barclay believes his side face a "big challenge" against Australia, arguing that the Wallabies can "play as good, if not a better brand of attacking rugby than New Zealand".
Gregor Townsend's squad head into the meeting buoyed after their impressive display against back-to-back World Cup champions New Zealand last Saturday.
Scotland fell to a narrow 22-17 defeat against the All Blacks and despite Australia's comprehensive 30-6 loss against England, Barclay is expecting a determined response from the Wallabies when the teams meet at Murrayfield this weekend.
"It will be slightly different," Barclay said. "They play as good, if not a better brand of attacking rugby than New Zealand.
"They play a very fast game and get very clean ball at the breakdown, so it is a big challenge.
"They have some quality players and some big ball carriers in the forwards and some pretty handy and skillful backs, so like in any game we will have to try and slow their momentum down a bit and try to stifle their creativity."
Townsend has overseen an excellent start to his tenure in charge since replacing Vern Cotter in June and led Scotland to victory over Michael Cheika's side in Sydney later that month.
Scotland received plaudits for the manner of their performance but critics insisted that the Wallabies were a different prospect from the one that reached the World Cup final in 2015.
"I think they were a good side in the summer," Barclay said. "I found it bizarre that people were saying in the summer that they were on a bit of a downward slope.
"They were in the World Cup final a couple of years ago and play against the best team in the world every few weeks, so it's not like they play against pub teams.
"They have some of the best players in the world, so I disagree with people saying they were on a decline. They've always been one of the best teams and maybe one of the natures with the beast with the media and social media is that they are always going to be under pressure."
Scotland, who lost to the Wallabies by a single point in controversial circumstances in the World Cup quarter-final two years ago, have brought in Peter Horne for Alex Dunbar after the latter failed to recover from concussion suffered during the bruising All Blacks encounter.
Barclay expects the sold out Murrayfield crowd to be treated to an "exciting" encounter where both sides will believe they can secure victory.
He said: "I think it's exciting for players and fans alike, you know it's going to be a tight game.
"When we have played against them in the last couple of years they have been quite tight games for whatever reason, very physical games and very fast games. We have been quite evenly matched."
