Never before has a Murrayfield crowd been treated to such a surfeit of scoring and, as Scotland’s head coach observed, it was the sort for neutrals to savour. But for all that they would have enjoyed watching their team score six tries, the more committed home supporters in a packed stadium could not help but feel cause for concern.

Yesterday’s opponents are ranked 16th in the world and this was their first match under new management. No-one needs to be reminded of what awaits next weekend when the world’s best side rocks up.

“The fact that we won is good to start with. The crowd numbers were tremendous and we were pleased with the way the team worked to get that win. We were challenged a number of times at the beginning of the game and in the second half but we stayed in front of the opposition,” Gregor Townsend noted after his first home match as head coach.

“We are aware that there are a lot of things we have to work on. We scored a number of points in an international which is not usually the case when you have two very physical teams.”

Scotland could hardly have made a more ideal start, not only because they registered a try little more than 90 seconds into proceedings, but because it was touched down by their talisman Stuart Hogg.

He was the beneficiary of the sort of bounce that explains why defenders should always take the ball in the air, albeit Ah See Tuala had no chance to do so as he scampered across to cover after Tommy Seymour had hacked ahead on latching on to Finn Russell’s neat chip in behind the defensive line; the Samoan full-back was helpless as it soared over his head and into his opposite number’s pass.

However, Townsend admitted to some unease at having scored so soon, in the knowledge that doing so can sometimes see a team relax and just as had happened in their World Cup encounter with the same opponents two years ago, Scotland then fell into the trap of getting too loose.

That contributed to the Samoans getting on the board, Russell getting a reprieve after his wild attempt at an off-load was not immediately punished when it set up a Samoan counter-attack, Tim Nanai-Williams’ first penalty attempt dropping well short. However, Scotland could not get out and he took advantage of his second chance when it followed soon after.

The prescribed method of dealing with teams from the South Sea Islands being to subdue them by maintaining discipline and denying them possession, Samoa were given too much encouragement in the early stages by Scottish handling errors and, while Russell extended the lead with a couple of penalties, it was by no means undeserved that they scored the game’s second try, Josh Tyrrell ploughing over from close range.

Control seemed to be established as Huw Jones slipped a tackle to score Scotland’s second try before driving mauls either side of the interval produced tries for Stuart McInally which saw the home advantage stretched to 32-10.

However, the competitiveness of the contest was re-established as Piula Fa’asalele spun out of ruck to cross the Scottish line and while the decision of the TV replay official that he had got the ball down seemed, at best, contentious, Townsend had no real complaints, suggesting that he and his players should be more concerned at having allowed the ball to cross the line. Duly encouraged, however, the Samoan pack drove in close once again and this time changed the pattern by firing the ball out to Nanai-Williams who saw enough space between Russell and Chris Harris, newly afield for his debut, to scoot in for a try he converted to close the gap to eight points with most of the final quarter still to play.

That turned into something of a tit-for-tat affair, Scotland twice nudging further clear with tries by Alex Dunbar and Peter Horne, but the latter missed conversion of the first meaning that when those in response from Kieron Fonotia and Ofisa Treviranus were both converted by Nanai-Williams, the visitors were within a score of victory both times. They had one last chance to set up an attack that, given the ease with which both teams were scoring when in range, could have allowed them to properly abuse their hosts’ hospitality, but Scotland managed to stop a maul from becoming a ruck around halfway and prevented the ball’s release to be awarded the scrummage put in, allowing Henry Pyrgos to kick the ball dead to end the madness.