'Scotland strike right tone in aftermath of Australia win'

In the wake of Scotland's impressive win over Australia on Sunday, head coach Gregor Townsend and his players were keeping it real.

Such was their happy but hardly euphoric reaction, it was if they had all taken a collective vow of restraint.

Townsend said the performance in defeat against South Africa was better than the 14-point victory over the Wallabies. Captain Sione Tuipulotu called it a six or seven out of 10.

Other players lined up to talk, yes, about the flamboyance of the second half but also about the chances missed, errors made and lessons that need to be learned if they are to be taken seriously as Six Nations contenders.

Time was, under a different captain, when this kind of win might have sparked an epidemic of giddiness. Unless they were having us on, there was none of that.

And it was heartening. As exhilarating as it was to see Scotland go for Australia's jugular in a ruthless second half, there was nothing really surprising about it, nothing that we had not seen before.

The dizzying tempo, line breaks, offloads and fantastic sweep of their attacking game as they accelerated out of sight was typical of Townsend's team at their best. But there was context.

They were at home, playing against a Wallabies side who grew tried and fell off tackles at the end of their season, facing an opponent only at the foothills of their journey under Joe Schmidt despite what Twickenham and Principality wins suggested.

Scotland had 690 caps in their starting line-up to Australia's 406, a squad average age of 27.3 to Australia's 25.7. They had experience and settled partnerships, the kind of cohesion that Schmidt refers to as the sweet spot. Scotland's power and class told in the end. Tupulotu said, matter of factly, he was always confident it would.

So, Scotland's year is done. Thirteen Tests, 16 debutants, nine wins in total or three out of seven if you only count the ones against the biggest guns. What did we learn this autumn? How much of it is relevant to the Six Nations and the wait for a proper championship challenge that now enters a 26th year?

Right captain, right time: Tuipulotu has presence as Scotland skipper. He's an excellent amalgam of clear tactical thinker, ferocious physical leader and uncompromising standard setter. There's no flannel about him. He's a brilliant communicator.

Schmidt would not be drawn on how many Scots he expects to see when the British and Irish Lions tour Australia next summer, but Tuipulotu will be one of them. Caelan Doris is hot favourite to be captain of Andy Farrell's squad but a big Six Nations would put the inspirational Tuipulotu firmly in the conversation.

Most encouraging moment: Townsend was probably right when he said Scotland's best performance of the autumn was against the might of South Africa, even though they lost 32-15.

Scotland's physicality against the most monstrous dudes in rugby augurs well for the Six Nations. They played 20 minutes of that Test with 14 men and only lost that period 7-6. The most Bomby of Bomb Squads arrived early in the second half and Scotland matched them and bettered them for another 20 minutes. They did not take any of their chances - they created five or six good ones - but not all Six Nations defences will be as brutal to break down.

The Springboks got a fortunate try off a lineout early in the game. Then the scrum took over in the end and 10 fast points were added as a consequence. The scoreline was unkind. Scotland's power game stood out.

Seeing is believing: After the Australia game, Blair Kinghorn spoke about the value of so many of the squad now having won something. He was a double winner with Toulouse last season and there were nine United Rugby Championship winners from Glasgow Warriors in the squad on Sunday.

Steely belief in your ability to deal with adversity and get over the line only comes from actually doing it, not talking about it. Many of them have done it now and maybe they have entered a different competitive zone. The Edinburgh boys need to step up and join them.

The coming men: Tom Jordan's best positions are 10 and 12 but against the Boks he started at 15 and was incredibly dangerous. He will not displace Kinghorn come the Six Nations but Scotland's bench will be a whole lot stronger with him on it. His versatility opens up all sorts of possibilities for Townsend.

Add Max Williamson to that list. The lock won a turnover off Siya Kolisi and won numerous collisions against the Boks in a terrific performance. The fact that he was ill during the week of that game made his display all the more impressive. Injury cut his autumn short, sadly. Aged 22 and a giant, the coming year will be a big one for Mad Max.

The returning man: In the wake of a Scottish breakdown turnover on Sunday, Jamie Ritchie got in the face of a Wallaby. Uncalled for, probably, but it was a reminder of the hard edge that shot Ritchie to prominence in the first place.

Having lost the captaincy, Ritchie's been in and out of the team and the squad this year, but he delivered on Sunday. Tough and unrelenting and loud.

The battle in Scotland's back row has rarely been as fierce. Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge and Jack Dempsey. Andy Onyeama Christie (when fit again), Ritchie and Josh Bayliss. Gregor Brown, Luke Crosbie and Ben Muncaster. Euan Ferrie is one to watch. Magnus Bradbury is the forgotten man.

Lineout needs to become ruthless: The raw numbers of Scotland's lineout return show that they coughed up 11 in their four matches but caused the opposition to lose 10. Against the Boks they lost two to South Africa's three. That was good, given the Bok lineout is imperious.

It's not so much the number of lineouts that Scotland lose but where they lose them. They need to become more clinical. During that mad second half spell against the Boks, when the visitors were pinned to the ropes, Scotland had a five-metre lineout and a chance to execute. They lost it. A great opportunity blown.

The clever appreciation of Australia's vulnerability brought them a lineout score on Sunday. A step in the right direction.

Reasons to be cheerful: Lack of consistency has been Scotland's problem for a quarter of a century. Only the terminally gullible would declare them contenders in 2025, but you cannot write them off either. Not with the talent they have.

They have deepened their player pool in 2024 and improved their bench and back-up to the bench. It's encouraging but it's been seen before. We're stuck again in the no man's land between fatalism and optimism. Which way to run?

Zander Fagerson has big claims to be player of the year. Certainly, he carried the biggest burden given the lack of back-up. There is some encouragement there, though. Will Hurd now looks a decent prospect and Elliot Millar-Mills, for all his journeyman status, has always performed admirably.

In declaring the performance against the Wallabies as decent but not much more than that, Tuipulotu struck the right tone. In every sense, he's the leader that Scotland need right now.