Scotland legend John Rutherford has dismissed English claims that his country did not try hard enough against eventual Six Nations champions Ireland as “absolute crap”.

Joe Schmidt's side took the Six Nations title thanks to a 30-point victory over the Scots at Murrayfield, ending the championship with a points differential six better than England could achieve after they defeated France 55-35 and Wales crushed Italy 61-20. A number of English players have since questioned the commitment of the Scots, suggesting that they made things easy for the Irish.

Full-back Mike Brown led the way, saying: "Massive credit to the French for the way they fronted up for this game and for the way they played - compared to a few other countries."

Courtney Lawes said he was surprised at Scotland's large defeat to Ireland while Ben Youngs added: "I don't know what happened to Italy or Scotland."

However, Rutherford, Scotland’s assistant coach when they won the last-ever Five Nations title in 1999, dismissed those claims with contempt.

“There is no way Scotland weren’t trying,” he said. “That's just nonsense. Ireland are a bloody good team, without a single weakness. A lot of those Irish players are right at the top of their game at the moment, while a lot of the Scotland players are really inexperienced.

“It is absolute crap to say the Scotland boys gave up. Those players just aren't like that. I did worry about Scotland on Saturday because Ireland are so strong and they knew they had to score a lot of points. We are missing key players and we are low on confidence. If anything, it could have been worse.”

Telegraph.co.uk