Gregor Townsend rues Scotland’s slow start in 26-18 defeat to Argentina

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend was critical of the slow start his team made that cost them victory against Argentina and made clear his players ‘need to be better’ in the second Test next week.

He was also not happy with the way referee Nic Berry -who disallowed two Scotland tries and awarded a controversial one to Argentina – handled the ‘stop-start’ game.

Townsend said it was his own sides failings in the first half – not the referee – that ultimately cost them the first Test in the three-match series but he didn’t think they got the rub of the green when it came to decisions.

Gregor Townsend has blamed his side’s slow start for Scotland’s first Test defeat to Argentina

Scotland produced a stunning second-half fightback but it was too late after a poor first half

He had made the point to his players before kick-off the importance of making a strong start and not allowing the home side build momentum which is exactly what they allowed to happen.

Townsend was furious at the way his team played in the first forty minutes when they went in at half-time 18 points to six down. Although they scored two tries in four second half minutes through Mark Benett and Rory Hutchinson it was too little, too late.

‘I’m disappointed as we didn’t get going until the second half, and then when we got into a position from which we should have kicked on, we didn’t, said the Scotland head coach. 

‘We did not get much ball and had to defend for a number of phases in that first half. It was a stop-start game throughout which was the nature of the contest with a lot of re-set scrums, penalties and errors from both teams.

Townsend was ‘disappointed’ with the first half and urged his players to ‘be better’ next week

‘Sometimes you need to make your own momentum and you do that through accurate play and that certainly wasn’t the case for us in the first half. The second half was much better but we did not kick on in the final quarter of the game which we needed to do. 

‘We need to be better next week and play much closer to our potential to get back into this Test series.’

Referee Nic Berry awarded a controversial try for Argentina when Ali Price looked to have held up Jeronimo de la Fuente over the line. The official went on to cancel out one from Sam Johnson that he ruled came from a forward pass from Blair Kinghorn and disallowed another because he said Duhan van der Merwe had not grounded the ball.

The Scotland head coach, when asked about those decisions, said: ‘You have to make the most of the opportunities you get, especially away from home as you will get decisions against you. 

Blair Kinghorn (centre) was adjudged to have passed forward and a Scotland try was disallowed 

‘For me it was too stop-start, too much talking when the clock was ticking over and if that is what it is going to be over the next two Tests then we have to make sure when the ball is in play we are more accurate.

‘I felt Blair Kinghorn’s pass to Sam Johnson when he touched down was flat but it was ruled a forward pass and that would have put us ahead and Blair would have been at the heart of that comeback.’

Townsend said he felt Kinghorn, who started at 10 as Finn Russell was rested for the summer tour, had a mixed game. ‘It was not as good as Blair would have wanted but there were times when he did really well and created things,’ he said.