'Look, I’ll be honest': Sione Tuipulotu downbeat despite win over Tonga

Sione Tuipulotu admitted Scotland have to dust themselves down and come back stronger for next year’s Six Nations after a “frustrating” autumn series.

The Scots rounded off their campaign with an eight-try 56-0 win over indisciplined Tonga after scores from Jamie Ritchie, George Turner, Max Williamson and Duhan van der Merwe were followed by late doubles from Ewan Ashman and George Horne.

But the disappointment of defeats in the two games that really mattered – against New Zealand and Argentina – will continue to linger until Gregor Townsend’s side get the chance to put things right when their Six Nations bid kicks off away to Italy on February 7.

“Frustrating, as you could probably expect,” said captain Tuipulotu, when invited to sum up the series. “We didn’t get what we wanted, and at some points what we felt like we maybe deserved against New Zealand, when we were in a good position to go and win that game.

“But these are campaigns where you’ve got to dust yourself off. And we know the big campaign for us is the Six Nations.

“I think there will be other Home Nations going into the Six Nations that probably have to pick themselves up from the autumn. We’re not the only Home Nation team to go two from four games this autumn. But it is frustrating for the playing group.”

After a week in which Scotland were heavily criticised and head coach Townsend endured calls for his head following the spectacular capitulation from 21-0 up in the 33-24 defeat by Argentina, Tuipulotu was proud of how his team “stuck together”.

“Look, I’ll be honest, this week was a difficult week for all the boys,” he said. “It was difficult for the coaches as well.

“I’m just proud of the boys. That takes an emotional toll as well. No one is hurting more than the boys in the changing room after what happened against Argentina.

“The hardest thing for us is that we now don’t have a Six Nations game for another two and a half months. We would love to go again.

“But we will all go back to our clubs now and we’ve got some huge games at club level. The important thing is to focus on those and make sure we go into the Six Nations in red-hot form.

“We have had chances against New Zealand and Argentina, so there is obviously frustration there. But there has been some positive things in there for us as well.”