Greig Laidlaw is “loving” playing and captaining a young and competitive Scotland team but the frustrations of those final few minutes “bother us all”, he admitted.
Another match lost narrowly from a winning position on Saturday against Australia is the glaring black mark on a side playing with ambition, flair and scoring tries at a rate unseen from Scotland since the turn of the century.
“It’s exciting to play on this team at the moment because we understand what we’re trying to do, we did it for a large part at the weekend,” he said at training camp at Oriam yesterday. “But because we slipped up in just a few areas at the end we couldn’t quite see it out, so we’re cut up about that.
“The close ones bother us all,” he continued. “Our main downfall at the weekend was that we didn’t make our points count and invited pressure back on ourselves after we scored.
“At one point in the second half we did get field position and stole a lineout in their 22, but we panicked and let them relieve the pressure. If we’d held the ball in their 22 at that point I think we’d have won the game. We should have won the game, definitely.
“Decisions like that in tight games go a long way to deciding who is going to win.”
The captain feels however that the team are now are clear about direction and it’s reflected in the confident way they play.
“I’m enjoying my rugby and I’m loving playing in this team,” he said. “With Finn (Russell) outside and some of the young forwards coming through, I think it’s brilliant – you need a bit of experience in there and I like to think I give that.
“It always comes back to training for me, if we perfect it there that’s the key. It’ll be different on Saturday with Argentina coming up to shut you down but if you prepare, develop your skill sets and feel more comfortable under pressure you’re going to be fine when the big games come around.
“I pretty much feel we’re there. If we have a little more concentration and accuracy when we’re in these tight games I truly believe we’ll get across the line and win.”
Scotland will certainly need to value the ball against a Pumas side which has expanded its game over the last three years in the Rugby Championship, adding an attacking flair to the traditional Argentine rugby values of setpiece and mauling.
“It’s about fronting up, dampening their enthusiasm early on and getting in their faces,” said Laidlaw, who was man of the match when Scotland beat the Pumas at BT Murrayfield two years ago.
“In defence, they like to off-load more than most teams so our second man in has to be vigilant closing gaps where they are running. Our first contact and collisions have to be massive because if you don’t do that off-loading teams come into their own.”
The double open-side selection Scotland have used throughout 2016 is one effective way of stopping that, he added.
“Breakdown is such a key battle and we were effective there at the weekend,” he continued. “Somebody of John Barclay’s make-up gives you a 6-stroke-7 kind of player as well. He runs clever lines and can tackle and reload back like a traditional 6, but get over the ball as well.
“Hamish (Watson) gets over the ball at the breakdown and if those two boys are selected again it gives us that two open side mentality but with JB being such a clever player he can act like a 6 as well.”
