From ball boy to most capped: Scotland man breaks record and targets trophy

The Edinburgh lock made his 88th Test appearance for the national side in the 43-21 defeat by Ireland, breaking Scott Murray’s record which had stood for almost 20 years.

Gilchrist revealed that Murray messaged him on the morning of the match and also that their paths had crossed in serendipitous circumstances when the former was a Murrayfield ballboy.

“I remember coming to watch Scotland play when Scotty was playing and actually he sent me a nice message on Saturday morning,” said Gilchrist. “And he probably won't remember this, but I was ball boy at a game against Italy way back when and he actually gave me a shirt after the game. At that time, if you'd told me I was going to play for Scotland, I wouldn't have believed you. So to then think that I would win more caps than him is really special.

“It means a lot to me, it's really special. It's not something I ever really imagined possible, even relatively recently. I never thought I would reach guys like that, so it's a huge honour and I'm really proud.”

‘This is a team that’s going somewhere’

Gilchrist returned to the starting side for the match at the Aviva as Scotland fell short in their bid for the Triple Crown. Although they never got their noses in front, they did cut Ireland’s lead to five points on two occasions in the second half but couldn’t wrest control back from the hosts.

Gilchrist provided the assist as Rory Darge ran in his side’s third try but two scores from Tommy O’Brien saw Ireland pull away.

Scotland had gone into the game with a chance of the Six Nations title but had to settle for third place as France claimed the crown thanks to their last-gasp win over England which pushed Ireland into second. Gilchrist believes it was still a campaign in which the Scots made significant progress, bouncing back from an opening defeat by Italy in Rome to beat England, Wales and France before the loss in Dublin.

“You don't have to be too much of an expert to watch us play over the Six Nations and see that this is a better team,” said Gilchrist. “This is a team that is going somewhere. I believe that.”

Gilchrist, who turns 36 this summer, is already looking forward to the next international challenge which is the Nations Championship, the new tournament which will see Scotland face away games against Argentina and South Africa in July, followed by a home game with Fiji, all teams that have beaten Scotland over the last couple of years.

A chance to avenge Argentina

“We can only keep trying to become a better version of ourselves,” he said. “I'm determined to keep doing that until I'm not good enough. That will come for me one day. Until that day, my sole focus is becoming a team that can go and win things. We have to look at this as a stepping stone towards something else. It's a big step up from where we were in the autumn.

“The learnings we took into this tournament over the five games, there's a lot to build on. I think that's got to be the focus now.

“We went from Italy and we build, build, build. We've not gone back Saturday but we weren't quite good enough.

“We learn and we take another step forward when we come into the games in the summer. We've got some exciting fixtures, getting opportunities to play the best team in the world in their own backyard, going to Argentina to hopefully avenge what they did to us in the autumn [winning 33-24 at Murrayfield after trailing 0-21].

“It’s a real opportunity to take another step, then go into the autumn and take another step.

I hope we're sitting here after the fifth game of the Six Nations next season, and we've taken that step and we've gone and won something. That's where we're at just now. We're on the journey, but I think it's definitely a positive campaign overall.”

Gilchrist, who last week became a new dad to Maggie, will now return to club duties with Edinburgh and expects to travel to South Africa for their two-match mini-tour as they look to haul themselves back up the table in the United Rugby Championship.

He is unlikely to be involved in this weekend’s game against the Lions at Ellis Park but should return to the team for the match with the Stormers in Cape Town the following Saturday.