'Vulnerable' Scotland 'fell asleep at the wheel'

Scotland "fell asleep at the wheel" in their dramatic capitulation against Argentina, according to captain Sione Tuipulotu.

The Scots led 14-0 at half-time and stretched their advantage to 21 points when hooker Ewan Ashman crashed over for his second try of the game four minutes after the break.

But, 10 minutes later, the game changed on one pass.

Finn Russell's attempt to go wide was picked off by Rodrigo Isgro, and Blair Kinghorn was sin-binned after Argentina broke into Scotland territory.

Julian Montoya crashed over off the back of the penalty to get Los Pumas on the board and Gregor Townsend's side never recovered.

From 21-0, it became 24-19 and it felt like there was only one outcome as a justified feeling of dread spread around Murrayfield.

Pablo Matera and Justo Piccardo both crossed in the closing stages as the visitors sealed a famous comeback victory - 33-24.

"We fell asleep at the wheel," Tuipulotu said bluntly on TNT Sports. "It's not good enough."

Former Scotland prop Peter Wright called Scotland's mentality into question and the Murrayfield crowd let their feelings known as boos greeted the full-time whistle.

"Scotland lost that game," Wright said. "There's no doubt about it.

"We basically bottled it and forced the game when we didn't need to.

"Argentina had the ability and skill to win it, but it was down to Scotland. Their lack of discipline at the offside line destroyed them.

"It shows that every team we play against know that, even if we are 21-0 up, we are vulnerable."

Scotland have won just four of 10 Test matches this year and were left with an all-too-familiar feeling at full-time.

Tuipulotu was asked if criticism from the stands was justified after another defeat and said: "I think so, yeah.

"Gregor 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."

It was the nature of Scotland's collapse that was so alarming.

From a position of dominance to being carved open almost at will, with no way of stopping the tide.

Scotland shipped penalty after penalty during the Argentine onslaught as players tired and Santiago Carreras took the game by the scruff of its neck.

Replacements Tom Jordan and George Horne were left on the Scotland bench as they were swamped by wave after wave of blue-and-white attack.

"Decisions and discipline will be the two areas we look most closely on," Townsend said.

"We have to be better in our discipline. If you give a team with momentum penalty after penalty, it makes it easier for them.

"We obviously didn't handle that momentum change when we went 21-0 up and had an opportunity to go 28-0 up. It flipped on that moment.

"Credit to Argentina, they put us under pressure and deserved to win in that final quarter."

Scotland came close against New Zealand last weekend, coming from 17-0 down to level before conceding at the death, but both captain and coach agreed this result was the bigger disappointment.

"I don't think I could be as disappointed as I was last week, but I think this is more disappointing," Tuipulotu said.

"I said to the boys, 'We are going to have to take a really hard look at ourselves'.

"The next couple of days are going to hurt and it starts with me, I'm the captain of the squad and I take responsibility as well."