Nations Championship: Sione Tuipulotu takes ‘full responsibility’ for Scotland collapse

There has long been a perception this Scotland team have the ability to beat anyone on their day, but that they fail to deliver 80-minute performances.

This was a classic of the genre and head coach Gregor Townsend says there is plenty of work to be done.

“We gave them too many opportunities with our discipline,” Townsend said, echoing the verdict of his captain.

“The second half, we never got to build on the good work from the first half – largely, because we didn’t have the ball. Sometimes we made errors, and then with the yellow card we were having to defend for a lot of that period.

“It was disappointing. Whenever I see this team prepare, I feel we’ve got a chance to beat anyone. I felt that today, and I felt it at half-time, but it didn’t happen.

“Both sides of the ball, we’ve got to be harder to be broken down. Our defence was actually doing well. At times we were driving New Zealand back. But whether it was an offside, or an error around the breakdown, we were getting penalised and put into our 22m.”

Scotland’s Six Nations wins over Wales and England were followed by a shock defeat by Italy. They responded by beating France in a stunning display before finishing their campaign by losing against Ireland.

Last autumn, a narrower scoreline against New Zealand came just before a spectacular collapse against Argentina. They entertain and infuriate in equal measure.

Townsend’s side welcome Australia and Japan to Murrayfield this month as they attempt to end their Nations Championship campaign on a high.

“I still feel the players we have and the way we set up to play, we should cause opposition problems,” Townsend said.

“New Zealand had the nudge in the scrum at times, and they were very good around the ruck, so credit to them. They deserved the win, clearly.

“We’re going to learn from it. It was a lesson on making sure our error rate and our discipline needs to be much better. If you give so many turnovers and penalties away to a good team like New Zealand, you’re not going to win.”