Scotland star has frank words for 'golden generation' and poses brutal 'marbles' question

Scotland’s mental toughness has been questioned once again after blowing a 21-point lead against Argentina last weekend, going down 33-24 at Murrayfield. That defeat came eight days after the Scots failed to overcome a New Zealand side that they pegged back from 17-0 down and played half-an-hour with a man less.

Throughout current head coach Gregor Townsend’s eight-year tenure, Scotland have struggled to post victories over the top three teams in the world: South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand. And while there have been epic Calcutta Cup wins over England, those triumphs have been dimmed by sore losses and back-to-back failure to make it out of the World Cup group stages.

Scotland will sign off 2025 with a home match against Tonga on Sunday. They have only defeated Wales, Italy, Maori All Blacks, Samoa and the USA so far this year and pressure is building on Townsend, who two months ago was given a contract extension until the end of the 2027 World Cup.

Steyn conceded that at some point the team will have to ask themselves whether they have “the marbles” in the big moments of Test matches and in an honest assessment of where Scotland are, he assured fans that the players are working hard to rectify errors.

"It's just not good enough,” Steyn said. “At the end of the day, that's it. Yeah, we've lost that game [Argentina]. Credit to their team that put us under pressure, but this is going to be a tough one. I'm sure the people of Scotland are sick of hearing excuses. To be honest, we don't have any.

"We're not hiding from this. It's just at some point we're going to have to ask ourselves the question: Do we have the marbles in the big moments? Until we show it, then fair enough to the Scottish people for doubting that. But, yeah, we'll bust our arse off to make sure that we try and find the answers next week.

“I'm sick of saying the same thing, you know, that it comes down to moments and it comes down to doing the basics while in those tough moments. But that is it. And, yeah, a couple of weeks in a row, we've had the game, we've had chances where we certainly could have put our mark on the game and probably taken the win, and both times we've let New Zealand and we've let Argentina back in and let them take the win. So, yeah, it's just not good enough."

‘People of Scotland demand a higher standard of us’

Some Scotland fans booed after the defeat by Argentina - a rare sight at Murrayfield - and asked what his message to the supporters would be, Steyn replied: “We can only say sorry. We're really thankful for the fans that stayed behind and clapped us because, again, there's no shortage of effort there. We thank the people that can appreciate that.

"And to those that booed, I think we just appreciate that the people of Scotland demand a higher standard of us, and we demand that of ourselves too. I'm sure they're doing that because of the way they're feeling, and that's a reflection of the way we played, so fair enough. "

Quizzed on whether the frustration is even greater when you look at how much skill and ability is in that team, Steyn responded: "Yeah, exactly. Well, that's what it comes down to: is that we feel like and we've been saying for ages that we've got this golden generation or whatever you want to call it, or golden group of players. But, yeah, you get frustrated when people knock us down and don't kind of show the proper respect, but, ultimately, we've got to shut up until we do it.

"So, again, I feel like I'm being overly negative here, and I don't want to be. But I think we've got a group that wants to be raw and wants to sort of cop this on the chin and look in the mirror properly.

"I think this group and the people of Scotland don't want to hear that it was a game of moments and we'll be better next week, albeit those things are true. But we want to look deeper and find a way to reach the potential that we truly believe this group has."

Steyn and his Scotland teammates have already turned attentions to Tonga - with the ambition of “ripping” in to the Pacific Islanders.

"There's an element of what's done is done,” added Steyn. “All we can do is focus on what we've got in front of us. So, the first part will be the review, and then absolutely ripping into Tonga.

“Any time Tonga are coming, you know that they're a physical team, you know that they're a proud nation who value playing for Tonga, and we've got to show that we value playing for Scotland."