There is definitely something in that, but you cannot get away from the fact that if you are conceding five, six or seven tries in a match, as Scotland have done against New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and France in recent times, it places a huge amount of pressure on your attack to conjure a raft of points to deliver victory.

I think Lee Radford, the defence coach, will be unhappy at some of those tries conceded against the All Blacks. When players are going in for tries without so much as a glove laid on them, something has gone wrong.

A lot of those were down to individual errors or defensive misreads, but you can trace most of them back to ill-discipline leading to penalties that allowed the All Blacks easy access to the Scottish 22.

Scotland had a lot of really impressive defensive sets when they were under the pump in the first half, but there is no doubt they need to tighten up in defence if they are to live with the top teams.

Rory Darge is a player Townsend always refers to for his consistency of performance, and while many of us are fans of Freddy Douglas, he may have to make his peace with being a back-up given Darge is still only 26 and playing excellent rugby.

I really hope come the Japan game we see Ollie Blyth-Lafferty getting a crack. He's only 20 but is a physical beast and could add something to a Scottish scrum that can start to creak against the bigger packs.

Jake Dalziel looks in a good place to become Russell's long-term successor at 10, but the 18-year-old is only in his first full season as a professional with Newcastle and I think it's unlikely we will see him in a Scotland shirt before next year's Rugby World Cup.

I also like the look of Fergus Watson at Glasgow. The 19-year-old winger has looked good whenever he has been given an opportunity by Franco Smith. With Duhan van der Merwe's powers seemingly on the wane, Watson might just be that next battering ram of a winger that offers a point of difference to the national team.