Scathing Sione Tuipulotu starts Scotland inquest after abject Argentina collapse

The Scots conceded five second-half tries as the Pumas triumphed in Edinburgh for the first time in 16 years and there was anger in the stands at the home side’s capitulation.

Murrayfield is not known for turning on its own but the sense of frustration was palpable. Many supporters left before the end and angry shouts were directed at Gregor Townsend’s coaching box.

It has turned into a hugely disappointing autumn campaign for Townsend’s team who blew a golden opportunity last week to beat New Zealand for the first time and then crumbled in the face of Argentina’s second-half onslaught. Both games were 67,000 sell-outs, with ticket prices now regularly in three figures.

Asked if the booing was fair, Scotland captain Tuipulotu said: “I think so, yeah. Gregor has spoken to the changing room about back-to-back home sell-outs, not every stadium does that. We watched some rugby [on Saturday] and there were some empty seats in the stadium, not in our stadium and there's a little bit of guilt there because people pay good money to come watch us. I think we need to cop this one as a playing group especially and put our hands up and say that's not good enough.”

Converted tries by Jack Dempsey and Ewan Ashman, who scored two, had Scotland 21-0 up early in the second half but they fell apart after Finn Russell threw a loose ball which Argentina capitalised on. The Scots had to defend desperately and lost Blair Kinghorn to the sin-bin, with the Pumas scoring almost immediately through Julian Montoya.

Further tries from Rodrigo Isgró, Pedro Rubiolo, Pablo Matera and Justo Piccardo turned the match on its head. Santiago Carreras, a 46th-minute substitute, orchestrated the comeback.

‘Good hard look at ourselves’

“I thought we started the game so well and even came out in the second half and won that first exchange, we were 21 points up and we turned the ball over and then after that we lost our composure, didn't we?” added Tuipulotu.

“And look, it was an avalanche of penalties as well, we piggy-backed them time and time again, we got a yellow card, allowed them to run out of their own half, we didn't touch the ball for large parts of that second half because our discipline was so bad. I think it just came down to a lack of composure under a little bit of adversity there, we'd given away penalties and we couldn't stem the flow and that's on us as players.

“After last week [against New Zealand], that feeling that we felt after the final whistle, it was a hard feeling to take and I think this one's worse for us because we talked about all the things that we were going to do and we got up 21 points but we lost our composure and I think in the huddle I mentioned to the boys, myself included as the captain, we're going to have to take a good hard look at ourselves because it's not a good enough performance from us as the players.”

Townsend, who recently signed a contract extension until 2027, acknowledged that momentum shifted completely when Argentina capitalised on Russell’s loose pass but refused to criticise the stand-off.

“He's a brilliant player for us and a lot of the positive rugby we were playing, he was conducting that for the forwards and they had some outstanding running lines off him,” said the coach. “To get to 21-0 against a top-quality team, Finn's a big part of that.

“It's such a huge momentum swing which sometimes happens. Sometimes you make an error and nothing happens from it, it comes from the opposition. But for it to flip the field and us to lose a yellow card, it was obviously very costly and that's down to the actions of others as well that we got the yellow card. And very good play by Argentina.”

Having also beaten Wales, the Pumas will now look to get the better of England next week in the final game of their tour.

“I wasn't angry at half time,” said Felipe Contepomi, the Argentina coach. “We knew the challenge we were facing. We spoke before the game, this was going to go for 80 minutes, it was about holding tough on the real pressure moments, and I think we did that for part of the game.”