Execution the issue, not intent or style

on the philosophy of the team under Gregor Townsend; this is not Robbo’s team barely moving it beyond Dan Parks.

This philosophy was also in running out the kick-off after Horne’s try, and this is where perhaps it maybe does need reining in. The momentum was with Scotland having sliced open the South Africans with two delicious off-loads by Huw Jones, and it didn’t need to be rammed home again so immediately.

A simple exit strategy – perhaps using Laidlaw’s strong box kick or a long boot to touch by Stuart Hogg, who kicked superbly from hand, would have been wiser. But again, everything would have been better had they executed the run-out better.

The third episode which suggested Scotland’s issue was execution rather than intent came after Laidlaw’s long penalty to restore parity at 20-20 after Willie le Roux was dreadfully yellowcarded for an intentional knock-on when clearly trying to intercept a pass.

Jonny Gray was lifted to take Pollard’s kick-off, but there was a crucial misjudgement, a fumble and the livewire Sbu Nkosi pounced on the loose ball. Within two minutes Scotland were forced to infringe and Pollard kicked South Africa back in front.

That was 10 points surrendered far too easily in the immediate aftermath of Scottish scores which should have had the match moving in their favour.

Those 10 points, and not the undeniable pressure South Africa had the Scots under at the breakdown, was the real difference in the game. Even that deficiency would have probably been solved by a better balanced back row, and John Barclay’s ability to pilfer opposition ball and protect his own is not available at present.

The one overriding issue the Scots had was execution, and the one concern is that 18 months into Townsend’s tenure it’s still a problem, as is consistency. There was no better illustration for this than Jones’ performance on Saturday – even if I still think he was wrongly singled out after Wales – and that of Finn Russell.

After an ebullient performance against Fiji, it was back to the hunted, indecisive Finn – too full of crazy ideas and off-loads under pressure. I’d have liked to see Scotland go to the successful Plan B of the spring when they hooked an off-colour Russell against both France and Italy and switched Laidlaw to 10, but it seems that ploy has been ditched as they develop Adam Hastings.

Even with Russell having one of his poor games, the Scots should maybe still have won. There seems more work to do in nailing down a more seamless execution not just at stand-off, finding a better balance of personnel in the pack, wrapping the electrifying Hogg in cotton wool.

But the potential remains. There can’t be any going back to 2010.