The only time to judge Scotland is once the Guinness Six Nations is complete – and certainly not before they’ve played the top two nations in the world.
Vice-captain Grant Gilchrist says the team have belief and confidence after two opening wins for the first time since Five Nations went Six. But that’s as far as it goes right now.
“We don’t want to get carried away,” he said. “We’ve not been in this position before, but we’ve been in similar positions where we’ve had big results.
“I’d say judge us at the end of the tournament. That’s how we’ve got to look at it. We’ve had big days against England, another big day on Saturday against Wales, but we shouldn’t be judged until the end of the Six Nations.
“This team’s mindset now is that we’re not going to be getting carried away after two wins. It’s about where we end up at the end of the Championship.”
Certainly the team will have to continue the upward curve if they are to follow up their 2021 win and beat France in Paris for the second successive time. The Scots last did that 1969.
“Playing in Paris is always special, always a battle, and one that we’ll be relishing,” said Gilchrist.
“We’ll have to be better than we were on Saturday. Our set plays didn’t really get into multi-phase like we would have wanted in the first half.
“We did show a lot more belief and composure than we’ve had previously when Wales started coming back into it. It was getting a bit scrappy, but we managed to tidy up.
‘We’ve got to keep getting better’
“The breakdown was the biggest thing in the first half – they were getting those jackal turnovers. Going forward we can’t give those turnovers, otherwise we won’t get into our shape.
“We settled in the second half. I think now we’ve set a standard and we’ve just got to keep getting better week in, week out.”
But the test against Wales has flushed the team with confidence, he added.
“We know we can be better than we were on Saturday, and we know we’ll need to be in the games to come.
“But what an exciting place to be in, where you feel like you can improve, you can get better, but to be in that position having won two games is massive.
“I quite liked the pressure on us. Don’t shy away from it. We knew we had to deliver. We’re going to have to get used to that if we’re going to be a great team.
“Saturday was a good starting point for that, but this will be France week.
“We’ve done nothing yet. You’ve got to start from scratch again, build a week and then build a performance that wins on the Sunday.”