He said: "I'm obviously delighted to get to my 50th cap - it was a race between myself, Stuart Grimes and Scott Murray and it's nice to get there first - but the pack has been pretty settled in recent years and that continuity has helped me to improve.
"When you get older you see the game evolve around you more and don't jump in to everything, as you do when you're young. The Lions tour taught me a lot about professionalism, and unprofessionalism, but mainly about the standards the top players set themselves. I tried to bring that back with me and it is starting to come in Scotland now.
"What happened in November was we met their challenge and that is a huge thing to do against the South Africans because with their macho, physical approach they believe that, no matter what, they will beat you at that. But the things we were doing caused them difficulties and hopefully we can bring that to King's Park.
"There are two new front rows this weekend, but for us Bruce Douglas has proved himself a valuable asset to the Scottish front row and Gavin, with his sheer size is a great asset, and he's very determined, very professional.
"The Springboks will be favourites in front of their home crowd, and there is no doubt we have to play to the best of our ability to have a chance, but we can take confidence from that game in November."
Former Glasgow coach, Gordon MacPherson, is the new coach of West Of Scotland. The former All Black lock was player-coach at West when he first came to Scotland about eight years ago.