Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend described his team’s Autumn Nations Series arm-wrestle with world champions South Africa as “Six Nations Plus” amid talk of the Springboks joining the championship.

There has long been speculation, particularly since the South African franchises joined the United Rugby Championship, that the Springboks could join the an expanded Six Nations. But Townsend would not be drawn on the idea when he faced the media after his team’s 32-15 loss at Scottish Gas Murrayfield on Sunday.

“Yeah, Portugal next week, That's the next game for us,” the Scotland head coach replied when asked about his 'Six Nations Plus' comment.

He did offer a further explanation. “I meant more that there were away supporters. And the physicality, it felt like a Six Nations game, but then something else on top. You play the world champions, [the] number one team in the world.”

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Despite the defeat, and being outscored four tries to nil, Townsend was keen to take the positives from his side’s showing.

He described the performance as one of the best from his seven-year tenure, adding: “South Africa played well. At times we forced errors off them, but they played at a high level. Their pace on the ball, I thought their ability to move the ball wide really tested us.

"We adapted well. I think this team has grown mentally. We’re a lot stronger mentally and together at finding solutions and also believing that they can win a game, even if they're under the cosh.”

Two years ago, Scotland let the chance for a first-ever win over New Zealand at Test level slip from their grasp, with Townsend dejected in his post-match press conference. The Scotland coach was much more upbeat after Sunday’s game despite not getting the result he craved.

"I think the All Blacks game was different,” the 52-year-old added. “We were ahead by 10 points and we'd never beaten them in our history. We knew how big it was and we had a chance to win.

“Yes, I would have loved if we'd got to 22-22 and then kicked on and won. But the performance is almost as relevant for me than the result. “We were here to win, we get that and we're disappointed we didn't win, but the performance is one of the best we've produced. So that's going to be the basis for us to move forward.”

Meanwhile, Townsend said he would reserve judgement on the 20-minute red card law trial as he waits to hear whether Scott Cummings will face further punishment for his sending off against South Africa.

Cummings became the first Scotland player to receive a 20-minute red card after initially being shown yellow by referee Christophe Ridley in Sunday’s defeat, before the sanction was upgraded by the foul play review official. Townsend said he felt even yellow was harsh for the Glasgow lock.

He said: “I thought it was a harsh red card. I thought it was a harsh yellow card.

“I think it would have been very harsh for a team to have lost a player for the whole game for that incident, which was dynamic.

“There was no intent and there was a movement towards Scott, and I hope that gets reflected when we come to if there's a ban or not."

And asked for his views on the whole project, which has been trialled in the southern hemisphere and means a player can be replaced at the end of the 20-minute period, the Scotland coach said: “I'd like to reserve judgement until after this tournament.