​Ex-Howe of Fife back Peter Horne confident Scotland’s national rugby team will learn lessons from loss v Argentina

​The Scots were 21-0 just short of three-quarters of the way into that game at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium but went on to lose by five tries to three, their first defeat at home to the Pumas since 2009.

Horne, an assistant to head coach Gregor Townsend for the last two years, admits being left feeling devastated by that turnaround but insists some good will come out of one of his team’s worst days ever and has been encouraged by this week’s training sessions ahead of their final autumn test versus Tonga this Sunday, with kick-off at Murrayfield at 1.40pm.

“I was devastated after the game,” said the 36-year-old during a press conference on Wednesday.

“It was a pretty dark changing room, as you’d imagine.

“It sucks that you have to lose to learn these sorts of lessons, but I’m confident off the back of how Tuesday went, the reaction we had in training today as well, that this is going to stand us in better stead going forward.

“The players all lead a lot and we want that. Some of them really stood up in some really honest, good conversations.

“The proof will be in the pudding. We can obviously bounce back this weekend and we’ve got to do a good professional job against Tonga, but then this will fester in everyone for the next couple of months, and it should.

“We’ll definitely be referencing this game when we come back in the Six Nations to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“I think we’ve been honest about that and really addressed it. Last year we got over the line against Wales in the end and avoided a scare. That Italy game, I remember at the time we were disappointed with it, but it didn’t feel like a trend then. It was just a couple of things that happened in the game. It wasn’t as glaringly obvious as this.

“Because of the manner of the defeat, we’ve gone into absolutely everything. We were absolutely devastated after the game. It’s tough when you lose momentum in a test match and it’s difficult to wrestle it back. In club rugby, the swings are nowhere near the same.

“In test rugby, especially when you’re playing against a team that are in a flow state, when they’ve got nothing to lose in a way, they then get their tails up and you’re playing against the 15 best players in the country. Argentina epitomised that at the weekend, but we need to be better at that. When we lose momentum, it’s not good enough the way we’re responding to it.

“We need to be able to find a solution to wrestle it back. We can’t be shipping three, four, five tries. That’s just not good enough.”