By Steve Scott, rugby correspondent

WITH A tide of goodwill and optimism swamping Scottish rugby after last week’s siege of Murrayfield against Australia, there are few better antidotes to over-confidence than the sight of the mighty Pumas of Argentina today in the third and final Bank of Scotland Autumn Test.

The next time someone stereotypes the Scots as dour, they should take a look around this rugby nation during the last week and at the gleaming faces—extending even to those who don’t know or like rugby, but who got caught up in the slow-burning build-up to the chaos of the final few minutes against the Wallabies.

Actually, insanely hopeful optimism is never far from the surface in the game in this country, and we’re constantly uncovering turning points—so much so we’re usually in danger of running in circles.

The arrival of the Pumas, with their stifling style and love of an old-fashioned mud- wrestle, should be a perfect vehicle to temper hubris, but one senses quite clearly that Andy Robinson and his squad are acutely aware of how important staying grounded is.

“It’s all about keeping the feet on the ground because those last two games are history and we focus on the next challenge,” said the head coach yesterday.

“It’s very easy to get carried away, it’s human nature with what happened last week—in particular the defensive performance—but the players haven’t got carried away, they’ve focused on the improvements we again need to make.”

Robinson even believes there is room for improvement on last week’s epic defensive effort—200 plus tackles and all.

“Obviously we seek to improve in attack, but also in defence, we’ve got to improve our line speed,” he said. “We allowed Australia to get over our line four times, even if they only scored once.”

This is a key element also identified on Wednesday by skipper Chris Cusiter when he pointed out that the extraordinarily lop-sided territory and possession share in the Australia match could probably never be repeated in future with Scotland winning—in fact, had Australia been halfway as ruthless as usual, they would probably have won by 15 points.

Luck played a big part, even if the law of averages from past matches and the effort expended on Saturday meant it was due. That’s not to totally decry the performance—Australia missed those chances in large part due to the pressure exerted by the Scottish defence.

Robinson had another key example of where the game was won.

“In the second half we conceded only three penalties, which for a team under that much pressure was just exceptional,” he said.

“One was for a high tackle, one for getting in front of the kicker, and the third was at a scrum, which I thought was dubious—two were solvable and one we didn’t agree with.

“It’s a different ref this week, but we must make sure our discipline is paramount, we can’t give Argentina a foothold in the game by giving away penalties as we did against Fiji.

“It comes from understanding the game and the referee and also from not gambling—so many penalties are given away by players gambling.

“There’s enough grey areas in rugby (that) you don’t need to gamble. The trust that comes from confidence in each other helps with that, that’s grown in the squad these last three weeks.”

Scotland will be getting used to Argentina, with this test, a two-test tour next summer and the 2011 Rugby World Cup group game all coming up over the next two years.

“We take nothing for granted, we assume nothing and have to work hard against a very dangerous team,” said Robinson of today’s game. “I have a lot of respect for the whole rugby culture in Argentina, the amateur ethos there and the knowledge of the game they have.

“This is one of those games where the set-piece factor is huge, our lineout’s going well but Patricio Albacete is a quality lineout forward and can destroy anyone. Our scrum has creaked on occasion, but I’ve been pretty pleased and one of the biggest challenges we can face is meeting the Argentina scrum.”

However, Scotland have the look of a squad that has a clear direction and momentum, even if they’ve stuck to the cliched one-game-at-a-time mantra.

“We’ve done it that way this autumn, and we’ll do the Six Nations that way,” continued the coach. “You also badly need the players who don’t make the 22—they’ve turned up and worked so hard. They’re the unsung heroes.

“There’s been difficult conversations for me with a number of guys, but there’s a team spirit and an understanding that working their socks off brings reward if they are ready for the call, as Rory Lawson showed coming on at scrum-half last week.

“I firmly believe that if those other guys had been picked, we’d still have had the same results.”

These are results that make Robinson believe the destiny of this team, against Argentina today and beyond, lies in their own hands.

“We have expectations, but we don’t get carried away with ourselves—and neither should the public,” he said. “Scotland can lose any game of rugby against anyone, we must understand that, but...we can also beat anybody, and every time we play there has to be a recognition that we are in control of that.”