Pieter de Villiers is confident Scotland can put right their struggles at the scrum over the past two matches against Australia on Sunday.
While starting props Pierre Schoeman and Zander Fagerson performed well against South Africa, replacement duo Rory Sutherland and Elliot Millar Mills struggled when they came on.
And the same duo of Sutherland, a British and Irish Lion in 2021 and Millar Mills, a Premiership winner with Northampton last season, found the going tough against Portugal last weekend.
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But Scotland scrum coach de Villiers said he was not worried, and believes changes in the scrum set-up will help this week.
He said: “Portugal did well in terms of varying weights on the bind a bit, and we probably should have dealt with it better.
“We're aware of the fact that we want to perform stronger this weekend.
“It had a lot to do with that weight management early on, and I think a couple of calls could have gone our way, but these 50-50 calls sometimes don't go your way because I thought we were slightly passive on a few occasions, and that didn't help us in terms of making calls going our way.
"We've worked on that this weekend, going out there with a bit more persistence in our attitude and mindset to go and make things right.
“I've got all confidence in all the players to go and put up a strong, strong performance.”
Australia also had their scrum issues despite putting a half-century on Wales in Cardiff, but de Villiers believes the Wallabies will address those ahead of Sunday’s match at Murrayfield
“They'll be up for a strong, strong contest,” the former France prop said.
“They've been growing consistently recently as well, and we'd have to make sure the last time we played them they were quite good and fast out of the blocks.
“So we'd like to make sure that we get that right against them as well. They're always a strong scrum to play against.
“We'd have to make sure we get our process right and do things right from our perspective, then things will go well.”
And with Scotland’s autumn so far showing wins against an under-strength Fiji and Portugal either side of defeat to the world champion Springboks, de Villiers acknowledged there is a lot riding on this weekend’s result.
“I think every Test match is a must-win," he said.
“It would be fantastic for the squad to end strong, and we believe that we've got this win in us and we want to go and build on an 80-minute performance.”
From an individual perspective, de Villiers knows a strong performance up front will further bolster the chances of Pierre Schoeman and Zander Fagerson touring with The Lions next summer.
He added: “I think that every game for any player who is aspiring for the Lions is important, especially against Australia. Not just because they [The Lions] are going there, but also because Australia is doing well at the moment.
“Anyone who wants to put a hand up will certainly have to do it on Saturday and thereafter at club level as well.”
He confirmed Scott Cummings is available again having served his one-match ban for the 20-minute red card against South Africa.
His Glasgow lock colleague Alex Samuel is also available having passed the necessary head injury protocols after picking up an injury on debut against Portugal.
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