Mistakes prove costly as callow Scots’ hopes go south in Texas
● Inexperienced tourists fail to capitalise on impressive start ● Coach Townsend says defeat by US was ‘huge downer’ but he is looking for a positive reaction in Argentina Test
was a subdued Scotland squad that set out for Argentina from Texas last night after Saturday night’s 30-29 defeat by the United States punctured the positivity that has prevailed since the start of the tour. The object now for the coaching team and the remaining 28 players as they prepare for Saturday night’s Test against the Pumas in Resistencia is to claim the victory that will mean the tour as a whole has been a success.
“It is a huge downer,” head coach Gregor Townsend admitted after seeing his side commit far too many errors and fail to match a high-energy second-half display by the USA. “If it was the last game on tour we would be even more disappointed, but we have one more game and we have a tougher opponent who have lost two games and will be fired up. We will have to be much better next week, but we can right a lot of wrongs with a winning performance next week.”
There were two debutants in scrum-half George Horne and No 8 Matt Fagerson, and five others making their first start. At times that inexperience was all too obviously reflected in some poor decision-making, but Townsend insisted that his selection had not been too bold, and that whatever the outcome of the match it had been worthwhile to give those players and others the chance to play themselves into contention for places at next year’s Rugby World Cup.
“We wanted to learn about players on this tour,” he continued. “We certainly wanted to give players opportunities to play. Maybe we could have had more off the bench and had more experienced players, but sometimes you don’t get the guys off the bench that early or get injuries elsewhere. We will know more about the players and how they handle adversity away from home against a team that were fired up, especially in the second half. It is not all good news, but at least we came out of here knowing that we need to be much better when we play for Scotland.
“As a team, we did not play to our potential. I take it on my shoulders that it was a selection with a lot of young players, a lot of guys winning their first caps, and it does not have that much cohesion in terms of them having played before.
“There are risks; not everyit