MUST DO BETTER

one is going to play their best in their first start. We did not achieve what we wanted to achieve.”

It all began so well for Scotland, with Stuart Hogg slicing through the defence in the first minute and putting in Blair Kinghorn for the opening score, which the winger converted. The domination continued for the first half-hour and more, as the tourists added two more tries: first, a penalty score when Horne was high-tackled with the line in sight, and then one by George Turner from a lineout drive – the ploy that had given the hooker a hat-trick a week earlier against Canada.

Two AJ Macginty penalties had got the USA off the mark by that time, but the ominous thing for Scotland was the control the home stand-off was beginning to exert on open play. If the Eagles had committed too many errors in the opening stages, Scotland more than matched them as the game went on, and Macginty excelled at putting them under pressure with some welldirected kicks.

While the Dublin-born stand-off had the subtlety, hooker Joe Taufete’e had the brute force, claiming the first of his two tries from short range not long before half-time. Another penalty by Kinghorn gave Scotland a 24-13 lead at the break, but that apparently secure lead was demolished in the third quarter as the home side racked up 17 unanswered points. First a bludgeoning run by Taufete’e left Scotland defenders trailing in his wake on the way to the try line, and then an error by Matt Fagerson allowed Macginty to gather and put Hanco Germishuys through.

Scotland had plenty of time and possession in which to mount a comeback from six points down, but Mark Bennett spilled the ball when tackled as he crossed the line, and although Dougie Fife

0 Skipper Stuart Hogg’s disappointment is plain to see as he leaves the pitch after Scotland, fielding

GREGOR TOWNSEND grabbed a lifeline with a lastgasp try, Kinghorn’s conversion attempt was wide.

You take any victory, of course, no matter how undeserved, but a win here might well have disguised Scotland’s many shortcomings. Notwithstanding the USA’S excel- lent morale and formidable physicality, this was a match that the tourists should have won. Their inability to do so was a failure of the imagination, and they need to rediscover a creative cutting edge this week.

“At least we came out of here knowing that we need to be much better when we play for Scotland”

Five players have been released from the Scotland squad that travelled from Houston to Argentina overnight, with 28 carrying on for the final Test of the tour, against the Pumas in the northern city of Resistencia on Saturday.

Full-back Ruaridh Jackson, centre Duncan Taylor, hooker Grant Stewart and back-row forwards Matt Fagerson and Luke Hamilton are the five who headed for holidays or home yesterday, as well as scrum-half Ali Price, whose release from the