Scotland coach Frank Hadden believes his side are capable of claiming their first ever Test win in South Africa.
The Scots face the Springboks twice on consecutive Saturdays, first in Durban and then in Port Elizabeth.
"We're under no illusions - they're one of the best teams in world rugby and Scotland have never won in South Africa," Hadden said.
"But we honestly believe that if we get it right on the day, we can do something special."
Hadden knows the South Africans represent as big a test of his team as they have faced, but he points to good performances against New Zealand, England and France as reason for optimism.
"Playing South Africa is the ultimate physical challenge, but we've developed more of a physical edge over the last 12 months and we're about to see just how physical we are," he added.
"They are formidable opponents and it's going to be extremely difficult, but we're really looking forward to it.
"There are a number of things we want to develop prior to the World Cup, lots of aspects of the game we want to do better.
"We did some clever things in attack against the Barbarians and it would be great to be able to do something similar against South Africa.
"We know it will be tough, but hopefully we can pose them some problems ourselves."