As delighted as the Scotland squad clearly were with Saturday’s splendid win over England at Twickenham, the post-match vibe was much more subdued than witnessed after their victory at the same venue two years ago, and after the Murrayfield success over the Auld Enemy last February.

There were two key, inter-linked reasons for this. First, the players and coaching staff agreed that the performance had not been of the level they now expect of themselves. Second, there is a greater appreciation now that this was a job just started as opposed to a task completed.

This is the third year on the bounce that Scotland have kicked off their Six Nations campaign with a win against England, and on both the previous occasions that early momentum has hit the buffers against Wales the following weekend.

“Two years ago, we played really well against Wales and were 17-3 up, so there was no complacency, and we lost the game because we didn’t handle a red card,” said head coach Gregor Townsend after Saturday’s 29-23 victory. “But last year we didn’t play well.

“This is now what we have to do this week – train well and play better. Even more on the back of that display, because we weren’t at our best in that first half. The game was a bit of a game of chess. We defended well and showed effort and were ahead on the scoreboard until three minutes before half time, [but] we were not satisfied with how we were playing. To win down here you’ve got to be better than that, and in the second half it was a much better performance.”

Warren Gatland’s side will arrive at Murrayfield on Saturday smarting from their 34-10 opening day loss at home to Ireland, and Scotland can expect a backlash.

“They [Wales] had opportunities and were held up over the line,” Townsend said. “They’ll take much more out of that than the score-line, and on another day they could have easily troubled or beat the No.1 team in the world. With a new coach, new defence, new attack, they’ve got that first game under their belt now, so they’re going to do better [next week].”

Townsend was tight-lipped about whether he plans to stick with a winning formula this weekend or tinker with his side.

The most likely change is at tight-head prop with Zander Fagerson expected to be fully match fit. The Glasgow Warriors man, who has been out since the start of December with a hamstring injury, was close to being ready to face England. In his absence, 36-year-old WP Nel put in a heroic shift, backed up by Simon Berghan for the final 22 minutes, but Scotland’s first choice No.3 offers an awful lot more around the park.

“Zander will [have a chance], of course,” acknowledged Townsend. “We have to look at the film and the opposition. We’d back that team to get a result, and you think a lot will start next week, but a lot of that will be how they are physically, because that was a tough Test match with 236 tackles [made] and a lot of running, so we’ll see where we are.

“Zander trained with us this week and he’ll be ready to go, but I thought WP was very good, winning scrum penalties, helped with Sione’s [Tuipulotu] try-saving tackle. It was one of his best performances for Scotland.”

Another big selection call will be in the back row, where Hamish Watson’s pedigree as a British and Irish Lion who was Six Nations Player of the Championship in 2021 means he has got to be in the mix.

Like Fagerson, the openside flanker’s recent lay-off – in his case he had not played since November up until the week before the England game due to a concussion – counted against his selection for Saturday’s game. In his absence, Luke Crosbie delivered a typically abrasive and uncompromising performance on his Six Nations debut, so it will be a tight call.

One of the players certain to start against Wales assuming he is fit is veteran second-row Richie Gray, who registered a towering 80 minutes, topped off by a wonderful demonstration of soft handling in the lead-up to Duhan van der Merwe’s decisive try.

The 33-year-old is enjoying an Indian summer to his career, after declining several invites to return to the Scotland squad during the first five years of Townsend’s tenure from 2017 because of a combination of prioritising his family and concerns about whether his body could cope with the extra demands of international rugby.

“He is in the best form of his career,” said Townsend. “Playing his club rugby back in Scotland has helped a lot – getting physically back to where he was and even surpassing that, because he’s in the best shape of his life. Mentally too, the ambition to play and the belief that he can play at this level [is important]. He’s probably our most professional player, first up in the morning to go to the gym and get himself ready for training, he’s doing all the recovery like in the sea last week, so he’s doing all that is necessary.

“We were almost putting Chris Harris on for him because he was cramping up at the end, but he stayed to the end. Him and his brother, Jonny, were integral to that set of defence at the end.”