Kyle Steyn on the area Scotland must improve on against Australia

Kyle Steyn has called on porous Scotland to tighten up and deliver “a real physical defensive performance” against Australia on Sunday as they bid to bounce back from their chastening defeat by New Zealand.

The Scots conceded seven tries as they went down 43-21 to the All Blacks at Murrayfield on Saturday, meaning they have shipped 38 points or more in five of their last six matches.

While Gregor Townsend’s side are generally well served by a prolific attack, wing Steyn admitted they must put extra emphasis on being harder to score against.

“Yes, massively,” he said when asked if they had looked at their defensive issues since the weekend. “Especially because a few of them were first phase, which is definitely something we want to improve on and make a big step up on this week.

“There’s an element that the game is going there (in terms of becoming more open and high-scoring), but I think that puts even more emphasis on the defence because you can’t beat a team if you’re conceding 43 points.

“The big challenge is to bounce back this week and make sure that we put a real physical Scotland defensive performance out there.”

Scotland failed to score a point in the second half against the All Blacks and Steyn, one of their senior players, said: “It’s been a tough few days to be honest. We were just really gutted that we just didn’t get our game up there consistently enough across the 80 minutes.

“To be dead honest, the leaders have taken a good hard look. I think when we looked at it, their leaders in big moments came up with some really big plays and probably beat our group of leaders in that respect.”

Australia head to Murrayfield reeling after a 45-22 defeat to England on Sunday.

“You’ve got two teams that are wounded that are both looking to bounce back,” said Steyn. “I think that makes the weekend really exciting.

“The match-up of styles should also make it a really exciting game. If you let them get going, they’ve got a really potent attack.”

Scotland are fourth in the Northern Hemisphere table of the inaugural Nations Championship with home games against the Wallabies and Japan before the finals weekend in London.

Steyn is eager for his side to make the most of the increased opportunities they have to face the top teams ahead of next year’s World Cup.

“We really just want to test ourselves against the best teams as often as we can,” he said. “Everyone knows how important the next 12 months are with the Rugby World Cup at the end of it.

“Everyone will be looking to stress test themselves, put themselves in the deep end as much as we can. Having something to play for and putting yourself in a higher-table clash (on finals weekend) is definitely something we’re looking towards.”