While Paterson settled back into the captaincy role he relinquished two years ago, the Islanders were looking to integrate the Fijian, commonly referred to as Caucau, into their squad after the winger missed the start of the tour through misplacing his passport and being stranded in France, where he represents club side Agen.

"I would rate him (Caucau) as probably the best attacking player in the world. When he played for Fiji against us in the World Cup he was absolutely outstanding, and he's just an out and out match-winner," said Paterson.

The 28-year-old was at stand-off when Caucau ran in two tries against Scotland during the 2003 World Cup.

He also travelled to Agen as an injured supporter when his club side Edinburgh took on the French team in the Heineken Cup earlier this season, and he saw enough of Caucau in that game to confirm the Fijian pace-man is still a devastating strike runner.

"That match was his first in a long time, and the impact he had was huge," the Scotland skipper said.

"Every time he touched the ball he was a huge threat, and I would rate him as one of the best attacking players, if not the best attacking player, the world has seen for a long time.

"He has the capability to cause as much damage as Jonah Lomu did in his prime."

The Pacific Islanders arrived in Edinburgh this week on the back of a 38-20 defeat by Wales last weekend, but Paterson saw enough in that performance to indicate they are not a team to be taken lightly.

He also insists it will not only be Caucau who will be causing problems on Saturday. "The players we are up against this week are among the best in the world, so it is going to be a huge challenge for us," he said.

"In times gone by I think people regarded games against teams from that part of the world as not being as hard a game as some of the other matches we play, but if you look at the individual ability of these players you can see that the challenge is absolutely huge, and by putting Fiji, Samoa and Tonga together they have created a team which is strong in every department," Paterson added.

"They will have been quite disappointed with their first-half performance against Wales, but in the second half they found their feet and offered a huge challenge, and this week they'll be even better because they've had a seven more days to prepare.

"It probably was organisational in the first half against Wales, but it shows what good players they are that their second-half performance was so good.

"Against Wales you could see that they were prepared to attack from anywhere, and that's far more difficult to defend against, so we are going to have to be disciplined about what we want to do.

"We need to play a controlled game and take the opportunities when they come, because if we are too loose then their world-class attacking players will punish us."