Gregor Townsend is under pressure to step down as Scotland’s head coach following a disheartening defeat to Argentina that left fans at Murrayfield audibly frustrated.

The Scots appeared to be in control with a commanding 21-0 lead, a score that seemed to secure their hopes of advancing to the top seeds for next month’s World Cup draw.

However, a careless pass from Finn Russell sparked a remarkable comeback by the Pumas, who managed to score five tries in the final 23 minutes, ultimately clinching a 33-24 win.

As the match concluded, a disappointed Murrayfield crowd expressed their discontent loudly, making their opinions on the performance known.

This defeat marked another underwhelming outing for Scotland, following last week’s narrow loss to the All Blacks.

Even before this surrender, former Scotland prop Peter Wright had said it was time for Townsend to go.

Townsend gathers his thoughts after watching Scotland blow a 21-0 lead against Argentina

Sione Tuipulotu said the players and staff needed to take a long, hard look at themselves

Argentina celebrate a thrilling Murrayfield win that arrived courtesy of five second-half tries 

 ‘To be competitive in the World Cup, you have to beat the likes of New Zealand or South Africa,’ he told the BBC just before kick-off.

‘Is Gregor [Townsend] the guy? I don’t think he is. I think he’s run his course.

‘We have a guy in the background who could take us to that next stage, (Glasgow Warriors head coach) Franco Smith.’

In the wake of a defeat described by former Scotland captain John Barclay as a ‘disaster’, supporters left Scottish Rugby in no doubt they should sack the head coach.

Townsend denied his team were mentally weak but admitted the second-half collapse caught him by surprise.

‘I definitely didn’t see that coming,’ he said. ‘The things we talked about at half-time were to be composed and be patient to get more opportunities in the 22.

‘I don’t think there’s a mental fragility there. But I think it’s being able to handle situations as they come and collectively and individually we have to do better.

‘It was a lot more disappointing this week than last week.’

Scotland skipper Sione Tuipulotu conceded the players and management need to take a hard look at themselves after losing the last big match of the year.

Asked if the booing at the end was fair, the Glasgow centre said: ‘I think so, yeah. Gregor has spoken in the changing room about it being back-to-back home sell-outs and not every stadium does that. 

‘So, there’s a little bit of guilt there because people pay good money to come watch us. And I think we need to cop this one as a playing group especially and put our hands up and say that’s not good enough.

‘That feeling that we felt after the final whistle last week was a hard feeling to take. And this one’s worse for us because we talked about all the things that we were going to do.

‘We got up 21 points but lost our composure. And in the huddle afterwards I mentioned to the boys that as players – myself included as the captain – we’re going to have to take a good hard look at ourselves because it’s not a good enough performance from us.

‘We were executing the game plan, we were 21 points up, and then we lacked accuracy and composure when it was needed. If we score one more try after going 21 points up then I think the floodgates could have opened from there.

‘We were playing some good rugby but we didn’t do that until the end. And, to be honest, we deserve to probably cop it a little bit as a playing group.’

Scotland conceded 10 penalties and had Blair Kinghorn yellow-carded just ahead of the first Argentina try, with Tuipulotu admitting their discipline was lacking.

He added: ‘I thought we started the game well and even came out in the second half and won that first exchange. We were in their 22, were 21 points up and turned the ball over. And then after that we lost our composure, didn’t we?

‘It was an avalanche of penalties as well. We piggy-backed them time and time again, we got a yellow card, allowed them to run out of their own half and didn’t touch the ball for large parts of that second half because our discipline was so bad.

‘I think it just came down to a lack of composure under a little bit of adversity there. We’d given away penalties and we couldn’t stem the flow and that’s on us as players.’