It’s time for Scotland to regroup, not panic. They know that without looking particularly threatening they came within six minutes of winning last weekend’s international against Argentina, and that the key to going one better is to tweak rather than go for wholesale changes.

The outside backs saw so little quality ball that they cannot carry any blame for the 21-15 defeat, the front five did nothing wrong, they matched the Pumas in the scrum and got the better of the lineout battle. So no call for change in either. Which leaves the selectors this week poring over tapes of the hardy faithfuls of many Scotland dilemmas, the midfield and the back row.

The two are linked. With the Scottish breakdown rarely producing clean fast ball, Dan Parks started to revert to type, falling deeper and deeper as the game wore on instead of standing up in the face of the Argentine defence and at least threatening to take it on. It’s easy to see his thinking, since the ball coming back was getting steadily scrappier and he was inevitably going to be forced to kick more.

The net result was that there really was nowhere for the backs to go, since they were going to hit the wall of Argentina defenders well behind the gain line with their own forwards well in front of them. No wonder there was so little in the way of constructive back play until far too late in the game when it was more desperation than anything planned. Parks may yet solve the dilemma if his ankle fails to respond to treatment, and if he is either unavailable or dropped Phil Godman, who has not played for Scotland since his own personal nightmare against Italy last year, would inevitably take his place.

Should that happen there is nothing to fear, says Duncan Hodge, in Argentina as Scotland’s kicking coach but also a specialist fly half in his own right with 27 caps and a comprehensive knowledge of the needs of the position. “I don’t think either would be here if they could not cope,” he said. “Godman last played in the Six Nations last year but you have seen in the way he has performed for Edinburgh this year that he has come on.

“Certain things have helped that, being the goalkicker and the extra pressure that brings, and he is another year older. He has also been helped a lot by playing with Mike Blair, who has kicked more this year than ever before – he never used to kick at all - and as a partnership, they have worked well together.”

Godman is still a very different threat to Parks, more of a natural runner and distributer, but while his kicking game has come on a huge amount under Hodge’s guidance, it is still not up to the standard that Parks offers.

“People have their habits and have their strengths and you can tinker with them but it takes years and years to completely change a player,” Hodge said. “In the timespan of a tour, these things are dependent on a whole lot of things around them.

“With Godman, he has a great range of kicks but you see from his games with Edinburgh is that guys around him seem to be playing well, the likes of Nick De Luca and Ben Cairns, so he is obviously bringing them into the game well. It is different at international level where he could be playing with Graeme Morrison who he is not used to.”

The other debate is over the back row, which has to take some of the blame for the lack of close support, the failure to win the ball from Argentina and the number of times the Pumas were able to steal Scottish ball. The options here are easier. John Barclay has to come into consideration as a specialist open side, something that Scotland seem to need, and if he is drafted in, then Allister Hogg is likely to be shifted sideways to play at No 8.