'Devastated' coach says Scotland held unofficial inquest into collapse

Pete Horne claimed Scotland held a productive inquest on Tuesday as they bid to ensure there is no repeat of their astonishing collapse against Argentina on Sunday.

The erratic Scots led the Pumas 21-0 midway through the second half but shipped five tries in the closing 24 minutes to lose 33-24.

Assistant coach Horne, speaking on Wednesday afternoon, said: “I was devastated after the game. It was a pretty dark changing room, as you’d imagine.

“We got back together on Monday night, and then Tuesday, we had a lot of meetings, kind of similar to how we always would, but the meetings probably just went on a little bit longer.

“And Sione (Tuipulotu, the captain) on Tuesday night said, ‘it’s been a bloody tough day, but it’s been a good day. We’ve got a lot out of this.’

“It sucks that you have to lose to learn these sorts of lessons, but I’m confident off the back of how Tuesday went, the reaction we had in training today as well, that this is going to stand us in better stead going forward.

“The players all lead a lot and we want that. Some of them really stood up in some really honest, good conversations.

“The proof will be in the pudding. We can obviously bounce back this weekend and we’ve got to do a good professional job against Tonga, but then this will fester in everyone for the next couple of months, and it should.

“We’ll definitely be referencing this game when we come back in the Six Nations to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The Scots’ healing process continued on Tuesday evening when they watched their footballing counterparts defeat Denmark to seal a place at next summer’s World Cup.

“We planned training and got through a fair bit of stuff so that we could watch the game,” said Horne. “We missed the first half-an-hour and then tuned in after that. To be fair, there was a screen just outside where we were meeting, so we all kind of had eyes on that. It was class.

“And then the second half, we were all watching it. There was a bunch of boys upstairs, there was a group in the kitman’s room and then there was a group of us downstairs. It was awesome.”

Forwards Gregor Brown and D’arcy Rae are both out of Saturday’s match against Tonga due to injury.