Scotland hopes remain high after Six Nations - 'I've seen what's gone in behind the scenes'

The Murrayfield wins over England and France will live long in the memory and, in between, there was a gritty comeback victory in Cardiff, but the championship was bookended by defeats in Rome and Dublin.

Saturday’s 43-21 loss to Ireland meant Scotland finished the Six Nations in third place, the third time they have achieved that position under Gregor Townsend.

The match was also a straight shootout for the Triple Crown and it was Caelan Doris who lifted the trophy at the Aviva Stadium, the ninth time Ireland have won it in the Six Nations era.

Scotland’s long wait for silverware goes on but Sione Tuipulotu feels they have made progress over a campaign which started badly but peaked with last weekend’s stunning 50-40 win over France.

“I've seen what's gone in behind the scenes and I'm super proud of the group and the way we bounced back after Italy,” said the Scotland captain.

“That’s not an easy thing to do and I'm really proud of the boys, how they rallied in this championship and we definitely made progress, there's no doubt about that. But yeah, my goal was to hit that Triple Crown and we didn't get there. But there was progression and I don't feel like it's the end of this group. I feel like it's a good starting point for us and I'm proud of our championship.”

‘We clawed it back to 26-21’

Scotland, who were outscored by six tries to three, struggled in the first half and went in a the turn 19-7 down following Ireland scores by Jamie Osborne, Dan Sheehan and Rob Baloucoune. Darcy Graham had briefly got the Scots back on terms when he finished off a fine move in the seventh minute but the hosts had the upper hand in the opening 40.

Townsend’s side enjoyed their best spell in the third quarter when they twice cut Ireland’s lead to five points with tries from Finn Russell and Rory Darge only for the home side to score again almost immediately through Darragh Murray and Tommy O’Brien. O’Brien scored another in the dying seconds to put some distance between the sides.

“I'm proud of how we stepped up in the second half,” said Tuipulotu. “We clawed it back to 26-21 but I think Ireland deserved to win. Every time we got back to five points they hit back again and stretched the lead. So it was hard for us to apply scoreboard pressure, especially after they came out and scored first as well.”

“I’m proud of how we responded in the first 20 minutes of the second half, but Ireland deserved to win.

Tuipulotu had spoken before the game of matching Ireland physically, about winning the collisions and being better at the breakdown. He felt they did that that in the third quarter but conceded the hosts held the upper hand overall.

“Those first 20 minutes after half-time, the way we responded and built, it was really positive,” said the centre. “We got back to 26-21 but they won more collisions than we did so I think that's a big reason why they won the game.

“I don't know why it happened, we'll have to go back and look at it but they won that area of the game today and were a lot better than we were.”

Tuipulotu added: “I think we'd have to credit Ireland as well, putting us under a little bit of pressure, particularly in the first half. But we were able to dominate the France game because our penalty count and error count was so low and I think those two areas maybe just crept up a little bit and put Ireland in a good position. They're very good when they have the ball in your 22.”

One notable statistic to emerge from the match was Russell scoring his 500th point for the national side. The stand-off scored a try and landed three conversions to reach the landmark, becoming only the fourth Scotland player to do so after Chris Paterson, Greig Laidlaw and Gavin Hastings.