Scotland must hope the New Zealand coaching team stop their tape of this match before it reaches its last 10 minutes.

For more than an hour, the Scots ran Argentina off their feet yesterday, played with wit and alacrity and seemed capable of scoring tries for fun. But as the final whistle loomed, they gave away three tries, leaving them with a 10-point finishing margin that did not begin to reflect their superiority.

The Murrayfield hosts smashed Argentina out of sight for long periods of this game. They played, sharp, sassy, purposeful rugby, and the South Americans were clearly bamboozled. Greig Laidlaw seemed to have lost his way at times during the last Six Nations, but he played the game of his life, as scrum-half and captain, and his performance was a beacon to the rest of the side.

Laidlaw darted through gaps in the Argentine defence and generally caused them headaches all over the pitch. He was directly responsible for two of Scotland's five tries, delivering a scoring pass to Sean Maitland in the first half and another to Stuart Hogg in the second, and kicked four conversions and two penalties.

He missed a couple of efforts, but his kicking from far out was imperious. It was the most predictable moment of the evening when Laidlaw was declared man of the match at the finish.

Much more of a surprise to the crowd was what they witnessed in the minutes before that as Argentina collected a penalty try and two further touchdowns through replacement scrum-half Tomas Cubelli.

In fairness, Scotland shipped those points after referee Wayne Barnes suddenly started penalising them heavily and often. And harshly, as far as some in the Scotland camp were concerned, although they were reserving judgment until they could take a second look at the incidents. It also didn't help that they lost Rob Harley and then Jim Hamilton to the sin bin during that time.

Argentina came to Edinburgh on the back of last month's first Rugby Championship win - against Australia - and had every right to play with confidence and verve after flanker Javier Desio claimed a try after 90 seconds. Instead, they were shot down in flames by what Scotland did over the next half hour.

That the Scots had not been cowed by Desio's score was evident almost from the restart. They came thundering into the Argentina half, recycling splendidly and hammering their opponents round the fringes. It was one of those passages which you half expected to end with some horrible knock-on, but they just kept steaming forward.

When Barnes signalled that they had a penalty advantage, they were emboldened even more. After umpteen phases the ball found its way into the hands of Richie Gray, and the giant lock crashed over from short range.

His only-slightly-less-giant kid brother Jonny was next to cross the Argentina line. The South Americans had clawed back some points with a 12th-minute Nicolas Sanchez penalty, but 10 minutes later Jonny followed up a line-out drive for his score on the left.

Argentina had lost winger Juan Imhoff, yellow-carded for a shoulder charge on Tommy Seymour moments earlier. The Scots scented their opportunity, and moved in for the kill.

Before Imhoff returned, Scotland had another try on the board, Maitland finishing off after Laidlaw's sniping break in the 25th minute.

In all of this there were some wonderful individual cameos. Laidlaw's was the best of them, but others seemed restored to their best. Ross Ford, another who had taken a big dip over the past couple of seasons, blasted about the park like a bull in heat. Richie Gray also offered reminders of the energy and power he possessed when he first broke through a few years ago, Finn Russell, on his first start at Murrayfield, played a game of measured assurance.

At 24-10, Argentina might still have fancied their chances at half-time, but Scotland quickly disabused them of any such ideas. The Scots had been rampaging into Argentina in the dying moments of the first half and they carried on doing the same in the first few minutes of the second. Six minutes was all it took to get the scoreboard turning again, a lightning dash round a ruck by Laidlaw leading to Hogg's score in the right corner.

The game became disjointed as replacements were thrown on, and there was a clear impression that the Scots were tiring badly.

Argentina grabbed their points, but Seymour also managed to claim a fifth try for Scotland in the 71st minute. As absurd as Argentina's late revival was, the fact that Scotland put more than 40 points past them is not one to be sniffed at.