GREGOR TOWNSEND called for a sense of perspective to be applied in the wake of Scotland’s chastening 32-18 defeat by Ireland as he pointed out that it would have been a “massive shock” if his side had turned over the defending Six Nations champions at Murrayfield on Sunday.

After an encouraging autumn campaign, the Scots came into the championship with high hopes of finishing in the top two for the first time this century.

But Sunday’s demoralising defeat at the hands of an Irish side chasing a third consecutive title brought a familiar sense of deflation for Townsend and his players after they had spoken extensively in recent months about the progress they felt they had made since their 36-14 World Cup pool-stage defeat by the same opponents in Paris in October 2023.

“No, I don’t,” said the head coach when asked if he felt an 11th consecutive defeat by Ireland had left Scotland “back at square one” in their quest to become genuine title contenders.

“The scoreline was big, and I know it’s you guys’ [journalists] job to talk about this game, but we have to look a bit longer term and where we’ve been.

“After that game against Ireland in the World Cup we changed a lot, who we select, who we are as a team, and that was done with the players as well. Our next game, we played a different type of rugby against Wales.

“We’ve carried on that, we’ve added bits to it and we’ve been really competitive since then. This was probably our most disappointing performance, defeat let’s say, since Ireland, but it happens every now and again. If it was to happen in the next two or three games I’d be much more concerned.”