SUMMER tours are all about learning. One with a new coach even more so; it’s his first chance to look at his players and discover what he has to work with as he lays his plans for the next year or two.

For Gregor Townsend, Scotland’s trip looked as though it was going to be one of those wonderful ones where everyone performs and all the problems he has at the end are good ones.

Then came the Fiji game and all of a sudden, down came a host of problems. So what have we learned?

There is only one Finn Russell

Russell was good in the first game, imperious in the second and absent for the third – the one they lost. Without him, most of the flair seemed to have gone from the attacking play.

The worry is that there really does not seem to be anybody to replace him. If he were to get injured just before the next World Cup, Scotland could be in trouble. Horne did his best but the Fijians did not seem to have much trouble reading his plays. When the ball went wide, they were able to line up the target man and knock him into next week.

In the week, Tim Visser was recalling Russell’s contribution to his try against Italy. Coming from deep, Visser realised there was a gap behind the rush defence, yelled something along the lines of “kick, space”. Russell was obviously going to link, but changed in a flash to put the kick in for Visser to take at full tilt and score. Vision, flexibility and execution in one perfect move. At the moment, nobody else comes close.The Herald:

Tackles count

It may be a bit heretical to suggest it, but Scotland have not defended all that well on tour. They missed first-up tackles against Italy and Australia, but their scramble defence was up to the task of countering the threats.

You can’t rely on scrambling every time though, sooner or later the breaks will start to hurt and that time came against Fiji. Two moments of brilliance produced two tries but there were plenty of other breaks that results in the penalties that really cost Scotland the game.

And Fiji kicked them, which brings us to the next point …

Take the points

Points win matches. It may sound obvious, but loads of teams seem to struggle with the concept. If you get four kickable penalties and a goalkicker with better than 75 per cent reliability, that gives you nine points and the other side are already chasing the game.

Believe me, Fiji, in their heart of hearts did not expect to beat Scotland, but when they suddenly realised they had crept ahead, the missing confidence came flooding in.

The other reason is that it sends the wrong message. “Would you have done that against Australia?” a Fijian journalist wondered.

Probably not – or at least not until after the sin-bins. It suggests a side expecting to win, not a side battling for every scrap.

Strength is not as deep as Townsend hopes

Two mix-and-match teams won the first two games – and never take anything away from that win in Sydney – but when the coach got all radical, it all went wrong.

Why? Three main reasons: one, it sends a complacent message to the players – you can win this without the players who won the last game. Two, he was asking yet another new team to gel in a hurry – a tough thing to do.

Three, he stretched his resources too far. He used 31 players in three games, 29 of them starting in at least one. Only two players started every game – John Barclay, the captain, and Duncan Taylor, the centre. Every game saw new combinations, new units, and in the end he found out that though some players he might have worried about could cope, there were more who struggled.

Consistency is still an issue

The transition from Vern Cotter was reasonably smooth but brought some problems too. Cotter’s Scotland played some great rugby over the last year, but also wobbled – ahem … England anyone? – and it seems from the Fiji result they are still missing that ability to deliver a certain standard, or above, every time.