Gregor Townsend admitted he will make wholesale changes to his side to take on Portugal on Saturday, and the Scotland head coach believes that will help avoid any emotional hangover from the defeat to South Africa.

Townsend named a 45-man squad for the Autumn Nations Series and many of the players who have yet to be involved look likely to come into the squad to face the Portuguese, who were one of the surprise packages at last year’s World Cup.

In their pool matches, Os Lobos recorded a creditable draw with Georgia and beat Fiji, while their performances in defeats to Australia and Wales also won praise. Despite that, Townsend outlined the reasons he plans to make changes to his squad.

He said: “One, it's a six-day turnaround after one of our toughest encounters that we'll face. And also there's a group of players that have been working hard the last two weeks who deserve an opportunity. So, you'll see a few changes next week.”

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And Townsend wants the incoming players to maintain the level of performance his first-choice side showed against the Springboks, and put pressure on the coaches ahead of the meeting with Australia in two weeks’ time.

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

“There were a lot of good performances tonight, but there's a chance for guys to impress us next week against Portugal.”

While Townsend will be without Jack Dempsey, ruled out with a shoulder injury,  as well as his Glasgow team-mates Max Williamson and Gregor Brown, he does expect to have Darcy Graham and Kyle Rowe back for the Portugal match after head and hamstring injuries, respectively.

“I believe both will be available,” Townsend said of his back-three duo, but was coy on whether either may make it into his team next week. He added: “It’s just whether we decide to select them or not.”

Glasgow hooker Johnny Matthews has also joined the Scotland squad and explained his presence at the captain’s run before the South Africa match.

“Dylan Richardson had picked up a knock on Wednesday in training, but he turned it around in time.

“Johnny will be in the mix [to play Portugal]. We'll decide what we do with Ewan [Ashman] and Dylan. I thought Ewan was outstanding today as well. “Patrick Harrison is our squad, so Jonny could be in the mix for next week as well.”