Scotland centre Peter Horne is relishing taking on South Africa this weekend, but insists it will be a “big step up” from the win over Fiji on Saturday.

Horne won his 37th cap in the weekend’s win over the Flying Fijians and combined well with his former Glasgow Warriors team-mate Finn Russell in midfield before making way for Adam Hastings late on.

And the 29-year-old product of Howe of Fife RFC was pleased to be reunited with “wee rocket” Russell, and lauded the now Racing 92 stand-off’s contribution to Scotland’s 54-17 win.

Immediately after Saturday’s game, Horne said: “I said to Finn last night ‘I’ve missed you, you wee rocket!’ – it was good to have him back. He’s a great player and it’s always good to play outside him. Over the last couple pf years we’ve built a good relationship and he’s just got the ability to create something out of nothing.

“We’ve played a lot of games together for Glasgow and recently for Scotland, and I’d like to think that I’ve got a good idea of what he’s going to be doing next. We complement each other well and we’ve done pretty well in the past.

“He’s on great form, makes brilliant decisions and seems to be enjoying his rugby.”

Horne also admits Russell’s laid-back attitude has rubbed off on other members of the squad, including himself: “There’s time when I’ll come screaming at him and he just turns round, has a laugh said says ‘Horney, just chill man, relax – it’s fine’ and although I want to throttle him at the time, it’s great.”

Turning his attentions to the visit of the Springboks – who saw off France in Paris on Saturday thanks to an 82nd-minute try by replacement hooker Bongi Mbonambi – Horne is aware Scotland will need to up their game if they’re to record a second Autumn win.

“South Africa will bring us a massive physical challenge, it’s going to be a massive challenge for us.. Fiji were very physical too but we stepped up and we have to do the same next week.”

“The last time we played them was in the 2015 Rugby World Cup just after they lost to Japan, they might have had a couple of years when they weren’t at their best but now they’re flying again. We maybe struggled against them in the past and this game will be a big step up in terms of physicality but I was very proud the way the second half went today and we are now looking forward to play South Africa next week.

“We need to make sure that our game goes in the way we planned it and if we can defend as well as we did in the first half and take our chances in attack we can create problems to any team.”