Sione Tuipulotu says Scotland deserve criticism after collapse in Argentina loss

Shellshocked captain Sione Tuipulotu admitted Scotland deserve all the criticism they get after they were booed by their own supporters following a spectacular collapse in a 33-24 defeat at home to Argentina.

The Scots led 21-0 midway through the third quarter after Jack Dempsey’s try was followed by a Ewan Ashman double.

But with victory seemingly in their grasp, a loose pass by Finn Russell followed by a 54th-minute yellow card for Blair Kinghorn had a momentum-shifting effect as the Pumas roared back with five tries in the closing 24 minutes to claim a first Murrayfield victory since 2009.

Captain Tuipulotu accepted he and his team-mates need to “take a 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 in their 22, 21 points up and we turned the ball over and then after that we lost our composure,” said the British and Irish Lions centre.

“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.

“As players we’re going to have to take a good hard look at ourselves because it’s not a good enough performance from us as players. We were executing the game plan, we’re 21 points up, and we lacked accuracy and composure when it was needed.

“We score one more try after going 21 points up and I think the floodgates would have opened from there. But we didn’t do that and to be honest we deserve to probably cop it a little bit as a playing group.”

Asked if it was fair for supporters to boo after witnessing the Scots unravel in such alarming fashion, Tuipulotu said: “I think so, yeah. Gregor (Townsend) has spoken in the changing room about back-to-back home sell-outs, not every stadium does that.

“We watched some rugby yesterday and there were some empty seats in the stadium, but 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.”

Head coach Townsend, whose position will come under fresh scrutiny after such a damaging capitulation, said: “I definitely didn’t see that coming.

“Especially when you’re playing the top teams, they’re going to have moments. They had a lot of moments in the first half and we defended very well.

“To have zero against a quality side like Argentina showed we were capable of doing that, but in the final 30 minutes that wasn’t the case and we’ll be looking closely at how that happened.”

Scotland seemed to lose their way after an ambitious pass from Russell was intercepted while they were threatening a fourth try, sparking a Pumas counter-attack which resulted in Kinghorn being yellow-carded in the 54th minute.

“It’s such a huge momentum swing which sometimes happens,” Townsend said of Russell’s pass. “Sometimes you make an error and nothing happens from it.

“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 for very good play by Argentina.”