It has all been a bit of a struggle for Eve Muirhead's rink in the round-robin stages in Sapporo this week as they returned to the World Curling Championships for the first time since winning the title two years ago but that reflects the nature of the modern game according to their coach.

Denied the chance to defend their title last year by a controversial decision from Scottish officials not to let the Olympic teams go to the World Championships, the Stirling-based rink were unable to impose themselves as they did in Latvia when winning 10 of their 11 round-robin matches in 2013.

Early setbacks against Canada and Japan pretty much ensured that they would not know until the final day whether they would make the play-offs and a further loss to China meant they were on the brink going into yesterday's last two rounds, knowing they had to win at least one match, albeit two wins could have edged them into the top two, giving them an easier route to the final.

An 8-6 defeat by the pace-setting Swiss left them with a do-or-die match against Sweden and while they were still only in fifth place after winning that match 10-7 to finish with a record of seven wins and four defeats, they knew they would meet either Russia or China in a tie-break for the fourth qualifying sport as those two faced one another in the final session, so one of them would also drop back to a 7-4 record.

That also guaranteed the Scots superior momentum, facing opponents who had already lost a match that could have seen them through and the Chinese team looked deflated as they were comprehensively outplayed, losing 11-5.

"It was certainly never in the masterplan to get involved in tie-breaks but there's no such thing as minor nations in curling now, most of them are full-time athletes and we've under-performed a number of times this week," said Dave Hay, Team Muirhead's coach.

"We've also often been exceptional and sometimes it's been both in the same game, but there are never any medals handed out on Monday."

He noted that their last day of round-robin action pretty much summed up the week since they knew as it began that the best possible outcome was achievable but instead ended up facing elimination if they did not improve significantly.

"We knew that if we won both we might be in the one v two play-off, which would have been ideal, but we also knew that if we won either of them we would be in the knockout stages," said Hay.

"The difference in standard between this morning and this afternoon was huge. Let's just say we had a very frank discussion after the Switzerland game and then in the game against Sweden they went out and came close to registering a six in the opening end, before their skip played an exceptional shot to keep them in it."

Hay acknowledged that the team has not been as impressive as previously, given the success of two years ago which was Muirhead's first world title at senior level which followed her domination of the World Junior Championships, where she played on four winning teams, skipping three of them.

However given the very different nature of the pressures involved in the knockout stages, he believed that for all that there would now be no second chances, they could be confident that there was no team they could not beat.

"The matches we've lost this week were to Canada's Jennifer Jones who is one of the leading players in the sport, yet we probably have the edge on her over the years, then to Japan when Eve missed a shot to the eight foot to win the match that she would normally have made 19 times out of 20, while against China we played badly and against Switzerland we played badly," Hay pointed out.

Regardless of the tournament outcome as a new Olympic cycle gets underway, he accepted that they would have to analyse the inconsistencies that are putting pressure on them at the business end of events, but was phlegmatic.

"I don't like losing any game, but I don't lie awake at night worrying about it," said the coach.