While Scotland have picked a team that looks designed for all-out attack, the man whose job is to ensure that the back door stays closed admits that Scotland could have done better.

So far this calendar year Scotland have conceded 247 points, just one fewer than in 2012, during which defence coach Graham Steadman was first rather controversially relieved of his duties before, rather less contentiously, head coach Andy Robinson departed Murrayfield. The game may have changed a little in the interim, but the basic equation of having to score more points than the opposition will never change and, as current defence coach Matt Taylor is the latest to discover, however well the defence is aligned everything can come undone in a moment’s loss of concentration.

“A lot of our defence has been pretty good (but) there have been moments when you’d like to be better,” he said.“Sometimes it’s individuals and sometimes it’s the system. The frustrating thing for me is that, in periods, we’ve defended quite well, but then there might be a moment’s lapse that becomes a soft try. Unfortunately, that’s sometimes the things that people remember.”

What they remember most, of course, is the final score, so that the way Fiji registered their tries does not spring to mind as readily as the way that Huw Jones fell off tackles in Cardiff or how Handre Pollard was allowed to drift unimpeded across the face of the defensive line before identifying the space that would let him through last weekend.

Rather than shore things up by, for example, recalling Alex Dunbar who was, not so long ago, being described as the defensive leader of the Scotland back line, the ante has been upped by increasing the play-making capability with Finn Russell’s shift into the midfield, but Taylor believes the necessary adjustments have been made for dealing with what is a creative Puma threat.

“We’ve tried to replicate a lot of the Argentinian moves, particularly off set piece, o we go back and look at the games, look at the moves they’ve had success with,” he explained.“We’ve put them into our team session at least twice this week and we’ve defended them really well, actually. Of course, we don’t know quite what we’ll face on the day. They could have something we’ve not seen before. They’re a very good attacking side so we’ve had a big emphasis on defence all week.”

As to the specific requirements of Russell, he expressed confidence in a player who never seems short of that particular commodity.

“It’s different to a ten position. We’ve kind of changed our system slightly in this series, so he hasn’t been in the front line as much anyway, but his one on one tackling has been pretty good. I think he made 100 per cent of his tackles against South Africa,” Taylor noted.“Definitely, I think it will be part of their strategy, particularly off line-outs, to hit that 10-12 channel, so I’m expecting him to have to make a few tackles, but, when Finn’s right on his game defensively, he does really well. I’ve had a good chat to him about his time in France, particularly and he’s used to tackling a lot of big ball carriers over there. A lot of teams have big islanders in their team and he’s had to front up in that position. He said he’s enjoyed that part of the game, so I think that, when he’s zoned in on his defence, he’s very good.”