SCOTLAND lifted a trophy on Saturday for beating Australia but it could have been for how we performed over all the Autumn Tests, with Murrayfield at the weekend just topping off three wonderful matches.

Right at the outset, I said that if we attacked the way we did against Samoa, and produced that style and brand of rugby, you wouldn’t get a ticket for the Six Nations for love nor money. I think everyone will agree now.

But where does Saturday’s display rank?

Firstly, you have to distinguish between result and performance. The Grand Slam win in 1990 was our greatest result, but it was just a dogfight from start to finish. Not very pretty.

Read more: Six Nations will be tougher but Gregor Townsend and his players cannot wait for the challenge

As a performance, beating Australia is arguably our best ever. I can only think of beating France in Paris in 1999 – a result that ultimately won us the Five Nations Championship – when we ever ran the ball as much and put the ball through the hands as often, and more importantly, took our chances. And just like that day in the Stade de France, praise must go down to the coaches, and particularly Gregor Townsend.

Since he took over in the summer, he has been communicating to the players the same principles he upheld as a player; get the ball in hand, run it, and score more tries than the opposition. Brilliant to watch.

Get the one contentious point, the red card, out the way first. It was a blatant attack by Sekope Kepu on Hamish Watson, an attempt to nullify his nuisance factor. But what was he thinking, with so many points of reference to call upon as evidence. He just wasn’t very bright, and I’m being nice saying that.

But that red card shouldn’t distract from Scotland’s showing. Teams lose players all the time nowadays to yellow cards, and occupational hazard, but they learn to play with a body short. I still think we would have won, but maybe not to that margin. However, we never let up.

Read more: Gregor Townsend has cause for optimism but accepts that his men must not get carried away

Once we’d scored 30 points, 40 became the target, then 50. That just shows how much drive and motivation is in that team, and on the pitch. Throughout these Tests, one pleasing aspects has been on how we have added to the squad of player Gregor Townsend has to select from, and, Saturday showed Scotland are not a one-man team.

You would always want Stuart Hogg fit and available, but had we lost, it would have been about not having him in the team. That’s what folk would have focused on. Instead we won, and the but the boys who came in did superbly well. Actually, Hoggy’s late call off might have helped Sean Maitland and Byron McGuigan.

They wouldn’t have had time to think about the game, or get nervous, when suddenly they were right in the thick of it. Everything I’d seen and heard about McGuigan from down south certainly stacked up against the Aussies; he is a proven finisher, and, is a more than a worthy addition in the grand scheme of things.

Read more: Six Nations will be tougher but Gregor Townsend and his players cannot wait for the challenge

With Maitland and McGuigan in the mix, other wide men will have to up their game, most notably for me Tommy Seymour. Yes, a Lion during the summer, but it isn’t summer now. Time for him to step up again.

Toony was brilliant at 10 and 13, no surprise then that two of those who seem totally indoctrinated in to his ways are Finn Russell and Huw Jones.

You have to admired Russell’s temperament. One minute he looks world-class, the next he is making schoolboy errors – although those are few and far between, he’s still capable of them. But he doesn’t hide. He comes back for more, and delivers.

Jones meanwhile is class. His try versus game ratio is fantastic. But look who he’s scored those tries against as well. His try came just as the Scots were beginning to put the boot in to Australian ambitions, and put the foot down to motor away from them. A quick tap penalty, not to bludgeon our way over the line, but to spin the ball wide, Jones with the pace to run away and past opponents, and, throw them a few decoys along the way, with the ball in the back of his hand as if he was going to slip away another pass.

Read more: Gregor Townsend has cause for optimism but accepts that his men must not get carried away

And a word for captain John Barclay. Quiet, assured, and has a nice manner with the referees. A bit of the Finlay Calder in him. And that means a leader and a winner.

All in all, in terms of everything from front to back, tactics and discipline, we were outstanding and what is in no doubt is that under Gregor Townsend, and his assistants, they’ve taken this unit to a new level from under Vern Cotter, maybe even up a couple notches.

There is a long way, and a lot of rugby, between now and the Six Nations and so much can happen; injuries, fatigue, players losing form, others emerging, and, the opposition finding some additional talent themselves.

Now, a few months away, is not the time for rash Six Nations predictions from me. Let’s see where we are then.

But, right now, it’s a pretty good place.