IT was one for the record books. Minutes before kick off in Dublin, Stuart Farmer, the Six Nations statistician, tweeted that when Richie Vernon took the field, he would be the first Scot since 1878 to start Tests as both a forward and a back.

The first in137 years, that is one for the big back to cherish.

If that then turns into becoming the first Scot to represent his country in one World Cup as a forward and then return as a back, then his team-mates say they would not be in the least bit surprised - total vindication of Vernon's decision to make the dramatic switch in roles at the start of last season.

"Richie’s brilliant," said Peter Horne, his colleague at Glasgow who was playing beside him in the centre.

"It's great, you need guys around you that you can trust and I’ve got absolute faith in Richie. You know exactly what he’s going to do, he defends like a champ, and he certainly makes my life a lot easier."

It was a partnership hardened in the heat of battle at the tail end of last season, when injuries to the likes of Alex Dunbar and Mark Bennett ensured that Horne and Vernon got an almost unbroken run for Glasgow on their way to winning the Guinness PRO12, and now that it has featured at Test level as well, Horne is convinced it could be one for the future.

Before he made the switch, the Glasgow Warriors centre had won 20 caps at No.8, including playing in the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand, and has switched back there for Glasgow in emergencies - a versatility that could prove vital to his chances of making the final cut as Vern Cotter, the national coach, juggles whether to take an extra forward or an extra back in his final squad of 31.

In his debut as a back, Vernon generally had a solid game and one memorable moment of magic as he capitalised on the space created by a Dave Denton charge, forcing the Ireland wing to come in and tackle him before a perfectly timed offload gave Blair Cowan, the flanker, an easy dive into the corner for Scotland's opening try.

It was exactly the kind of physicality you would expect from a former back row now out in the midfield, and Horne expects to see more of that, and not just from his club partner

"If we’re going to win these games we need to be dogs, we need to be tough to beat and have that grit, but we’re getting there," he said.

"We know we can do better and start winning these games. We’re not going to rest on our laurels that we’ve run the second best team in the world close, everyone in that changing room is gutted that we lost the game but we’ll keep our heads up and make sure we work on that next week."