I'm not a Scotland hypocrite, I've been in that group but we've won nothing - Fraser Brown

Scotland will play well on Sunday. There will be an emotional reaction from the entire team after the loss to Argentina - how could there not be? - but I would have loved this final match to have been against a South Africa or an Australia because I think that type of opponent would bring the very best out of Scotland after the disappointment of last weekend.

Gregor Townsend's been brilliant for the national side. He has created a team able to beat almost anyone in the world on their day. A team who has long since forgotten the late 2000s where the notion of simply scoring a try seemed like a victory. Scotland at times, play some of the most breathless, blistering attacking rugby in the world. However, despite Scotland’s resurrection under Gregor we have failed to shake off the unenviable ability to implode. It is not a new phenomenon.

I mean, you think back to 2010, and that Wales game in Cardiff. Scotland led 24-14 with 14 minutes remaining then got two yellow cards and Wales came back to win it. Twickenham in 2017 was another implosion and yes, I understand the irony! My early yellow card didn’t help matters. More recently, there was Wales at home in this year’s Six Nations where Scotland’s 27-point lead was reduced to six by full-time. And then Wales again last year at the Principality when Scotland were 27-0 ahead and ended up winning 27-26.

Every team has the capacity to blow a lead but it seems to happen to us more than most.

Won absolutely nothing

There's a lot of talk, mainly from outside of the squad in the media and social media, about a golden generation or this being the greatest group of Scotland players in the professional era. But Test rugby is about winning games and championships and we've still won absolutely nothing.

I'm not a hypocrite, having a go from the outside. I've been in that group, so I know the pressure and I know the disappointment of being in a situation where maybe our expectations were higher than probably they deserved to be and then we’ve not delivered.

The closest we came to being successful were the big one-off victories that we maybe hadn't had in 10, 20, 30 years, which at the time were monumental but we don’t seem able to go past that.

There's so much talent in this squad and so much talent in the coaching group but ultimately the only thing that matters at the highest level is results.

There have been calls for change since the Argentina defeat and people react quite emotionally after a match like that. The atmosphere inside the stadium at the end of the game and discord after the match was certainly something that I have not seen or experienced before and it will have surely reverberated around the Murrayfield corridors this week but if you were going to make a change, it can't be off the back of one game. You look at the body of work produced by Gregor and the coaching team, what they've done over the last eight years.

He has the CEO’s full backing

It was only two months ago that he signed a new contract with the full backing of the performance director and the CEO. So something pretty drastic would have to have changed in those two months.

There will be a review of the autumn series and then things will probably stay as they are going into the Six Nations and I think a lot will depend on what happens there.

The public will expect a markedly big upturn in results compared to recent Six Nations. I don’t think another third or fourth-place finish will dampen the flames, to be honest.

Three left on the bench

One aspect of the Argentina game that attracted much comment was how Scotland used their replacements or, should I say, didn’t use them. George Horne and Nathan McBeth never got on and Tom Jordan was on for a matter of seconds at the end - that’s unusual in modern Test rugby.

There has been a lot of talk recently about Scotland’s strength in depth, but we can't say on one hand that we've got brilliant replacements and then, on the other, not use them because that makes it look like the depth of talent is not there.

It was not a surprise that Duhan van der Merwe came on against Argentina because one moment could have killed the game off for Scotland and there is no one better than Duhan at creating five or seven points from nothing. But it was a surprise that George Horne remained on the bench and Tom Jordan only fleetingly.

Contrast the talent and impact of the players left on the side-line with the impact of the Argentina bench. Test rugby is brutal. The best players in the world are often absolutely spent after 70-75 minutes. It's absolutely exhausting, and any small error can be the difference between winning and losing.

The role of replacements has become a more hotly debated topic than it ever was in the past and, there has been plenty of talk over this series about keeping some of your better players on the bench but for some teams that has always been a policy.

The so-called ‘bomb squad’ has been a feature of South African rugby for some time. It’s a fact that players get tired towards the end of the game, particularly up front. If you’ve got the quality in reserve, why wouldn’t you stack the bench with proven world class talent that you know are brilliant in pressure situations and can either bring impact or close a game out?

Expect changes for Tonga

The bench philosophy is not now about coming on to maintain performance levels, it's coming on to increase performance levels. It's about trying to take games away from the opposition. There have been other situations where you've seen players start and play 25 or 30 minutes and then they get subbed off and everyone's thinking, ‘oh my goodness, why'd they sub him off after 30 minutes?’ But it's no different from bringing them on for 20 minutes or 25 minutes at the end of the game - you're just doing it in reverse.

Back to Tonga this weekend and it’ll be interesting to see what team Gregor picks. I think it will be a very strong but with quite a few changes.

There are players in the pack with a lot of minutes during this series - Grant Gilchrist, Scott Cummings, Ewan Ashman to name just three, and I would not be surprised to see changes in the second row and front row. At the very least I would expect if they do start, for them to be taken off reasonably early.

Jamie Dobie has played very well but has also been well used, and Finn Russell is another. There are decisions to be made there. I'd imagine there'll be a couple of fresh faces and that Zander Fagerson will be back.

Scotland need to put in a massive performance and put a lot of points on the board. There will be a big emotional reaction from the game last weekend but there will also be a lot of focus on exactly what they need to do to bring out their best performance.