Rory Darge's brutally honest take on Scotland’s collapse against Argentina

Rory Darge admitted he is perplexed at how Scotland allowed themselves to unravel so spectacularly in Sunday’s dire defeat by Argentina.

The Scots looked to be cruising to victory as they led 21-0 midway through the third quarter, but the Pumas hit back with five tries in the closing 24 minutes to claim a remarkable 33-24 victory.

The nature of the capitulation – met with booing from sections of the capacity Murrayfield crowd – has brought fresh focus on the position of long-serving head coach Gregor Townsend.

“It was a quiet changing room afterwards,” said vice-captain Darge. “21-0 up and it felt that way, we felt like we were on top. It was a massive momentum swing and we struggled to stem the flow. The guys on the pitch are the ones that have to do better. ”

Asked how a match could turn so dramatically, Darge said: “I don’t know.

“It’s not good enough really from us. Watching it back, I’m sure there will be loads in there from 21-0 onwards that we can do so much better.”

Darge felt Scotland picked up where they left off in the second half of their spirited 25-17 defeat by New Zealand the previous week as they bossed the Pumas for the first 50 minutes.

But the Glasgow back-rower acknowledged his side became flustered when the visitors started finding their way back into the game and admits that they need to remain far more clear-headed when faced with such adversity.

“We’re constantly looking at ways to get better and I think we had a massive carry-over from last week in what worked for us,” said Darge.

“21-0 up, putting them under stress and on top from an attack point of view, from a defence point of view, set piece.

“Now, obviously, what we need to look at is how we keep our composure in that last 30 minutes when we’re so far ahead.

“Maybe a bit of an understanding of what Test match rugby is like from us in those moments. You have to be ruthless, particularly against a team as good as Argentina. If you’re not, they can score tries. We just weren’t good enough in that last half hour.

“We obviously need to do our absolute utmost to be more composed in that moment and go on to make it 28-0. But (if you don’t) you’ve just got to flush that and move on and go and make the next bit of action positive.

“We need to watch the game back and let it hurt over the next wee while and during the reviews and then quickly the mindset will flip on to Tonga (next Sunday).”