Championship of Nations: Room for improvement but Scotland are heading in the right direction

After the South Africa match, Rassie Erasmus said Scotland was among the top three countries in the world, presumably behind his team and France.

With Rassie, you never know what kind of agenda might lie behind his public comments – there’s usually something there – but he was surprising nonetheless.

And in the wake of the Fiji match, Shuman – in two attempts this summer – went down a similar path when asked if he felt Scotland were closing the gap between the best teams in the world.

“No, I don’t feel like we’re closing the gap,” he added. “I feel we are a top three or top five team in the world. We have proven it – Argentina away, France, England, we play. [and beat] Top dogs.

“South Africa, Ireland, the All Blacks, we didn’t have a lot of love there. Maybe those are the games we want to target, to play against the best. Just to compete with them completely for an 80-minute performance.”

Top three is a big stretch, but there are moments in matches when you think Scotland have the potential to shake off the ghosts of Ireland and New Zealand.

They will face the New Zealanders in the fall and play Ireland in the spring, both at Murrayfield.

As much as the Nations Championship has been a fun fest full of experiences, the real battle and measure of progress remains the Six Nations.

Scotland is heading in the right direction, but summer and autumn have always been an unreliable guide to its true value.

Enjoy the quality of some of their rugby over the past three weeks, but put it in context too. The Six Nations Championship and World Cup remain in place.