Scotland scored eight tries in an comfortable win as international rugby returned to the Northern Hemisphere and BT Murrayfield for the first time in seven months.

Gregor Townsend said: “A win when you play for Scotland is important. The performance at times was very good, especially around the physicality. We defended well and our maul and scrum stood up to a really good challenge.

“There is lots to improve, but it was our first game for seven months, so we’ll take that win. While there are some areas we know we’ll have to be better next week, it is pleasing to get that hit-out tonight.”

Darcy Graham was the first to cross the whitewash after only two minutes and the Edinburgh winger got his second later in the game. Captain Fraser Brown also scored a brace on his 51st appearance for his country, while Stuart Mcinally, Hamish Watson, Blair Kinghorn and Duhan van der Merwe – on his Scotland debut – all got in on the act.

Townsend added: “The pressure the forwards exerted led to penalties at scrum-time and at maul time they were fairly dominant and it was good to see Fraser [Brown] and Stuart [McInally] get on the back of those maul tries as well.

“It was good to see that we upped our game in the last 10-15 minutes and we did that at the end of the first-half as well, so it shows the players fitness levels are high.”

Scotland travel to play Wales in their rescheduled Guinness Six Nations fixture next Saturday.