A first Calcutta Cup win in a decade may have provided the latest evidence of Scotland’s growing capacity to repel invaders, but focus now switches to proving themselves capable of showing real menace abroad.

Saturday’s 25-13 victory over England has now set up a potential title decider with Ireland in Dublin in 12 days’ time, but having won there just once in the past 20 years, the Scots know they will again be rank outsiders as they seek to end another Grand Slam bid.

That win in 2010 is Scotland’s most recent at any away ground in the Six Nations Championship other than in Italy, but as head coach Gregor Townsend acknowledged, the task facing them could hardly be tougher as they visit the world’s third-ranked side.

“There is probably a twin challenge in that we have to look at Ireland closely, what we need to do to beat them and what we need to do to get our game in place,” he said on a weekend that had seen his side regain the ground lost in those world rankings on the opening day of the championship, as they returned to the top five, but also Ireland claim a bonus-point win over Wales.

“However, it is also about how we do much better away from home. It has been an issue for Scottish teams since the Six Nations began,” he added.

So much so that Townsend seemed eager to manage expectations, by suggesting that victory is not essential in terms of establishing improvement.

“We have to make sure we play close to our potential,” he said.

“If that means we win the game, then brilliant, but if it means that we just put in a very improved performance compared to the likes of Cardiff and Twickenham, then that is a big step forward.”

In saying so he pointed to the fact that Scotland’s away day blues have been a constant factor in the history of this competition, since they lost their first Six Nations match in Rome in 2000.

“It's not something new, our record in the Six Nations,” Townsend noted.

“Part of it is that it is tough to play away from home, as England just found out. All teams have much better home records in this tournament than, say, in November games or in World Cups.

“We have to make sure we have focused right and that we are ready for what we will face in Dublin and that we are able to play accurate rugby. We obviously didn't do that in Cardiff.”

“We took lessons from Cardiff into the French game. The selection changed, more experienced players came back into the group and they have really helped us over the last two games.

“As a group, we talked straight after that game about what we had to do better in terms of our mental focus, but we also said we would not have another opportunity for a month because we had two big games at home to play. We will turn our attention to that [Ireland] next week.”

After what was only his second defeat as England coach, opposite number Eddie Jones, meanwhile, advised against over-reaction to what was a comprehensive defeat for his side.

“You can start to find shadows in the corner here,” he said.

“Once you get in the situation we were in, it puts a lot of pressure on you and we probably didn’t execute as well as we can, but I’m not going to go down the track of saying everything’s wrong because everything’s not wrong. We were beaten at the breakdown, we didn’t get our spacing right and the intensity wasn’t good enough.”

That breakdown battle had proven crucial, but Jones suggested that the major difference had been the mindset of the two sides, albeit he was struggling to explain why.

“We could play tomorrow and the breakdown could be significantly different, so let’s not get too carried away with it. Today it wasn’t good, but you can turn that around in 24 hours,” he claimed.

“If I was a mind reader I’d know [why]. I thought we were ready to play today but we weren’t. They contested the breakdown well, they read the referee well and full credit to them.”