RECENT reports to come out of Argentina suggest their national side, beaten finalists in the last World Cup in 1994, is in decline, but the quality of their hockey over the weekend when beating Scotland 5-1 and 3-1 at Cramond in Edinburgh tells a different story.

They are now just a shade below the form they produced in Dublin four years ago when winning silver and, with a few more games under their belts, they could well be up with the best of them in Utrecht in nine days' time.

This will be of little consolation to Scotland after they were left battered and bruised by the magical Argentinians. At least the Scots will have the consolation that Argentina will not be in their group at the World Cup.

The minimising of errors could enhance their prospects considerably for they, to all intents and purposes, gifted Argentina all three goals yesterday after they had dominated the first half.

The fact that Argentina was still in the game at half-time was due to the fact that the Scottish attack made little impact and their set-piece drill failed to function.

Argentina did squander a good opportunity after 49 minutes, but made amends with three goals in a nine-minute spell.

For 20 minutes in the opening game on Saturday evening, Scotland were a match for the Pan-American champions, with Susan Fraser cancelling out a Masotta goal. Then a hat trick in the course of 18 minutes by Luciana Azmar put paid to Scotland's aspirations. A fifth goal by Oneto 18 minutes from the end completed Scotland's heaviest defeat for two years.

Despite these two defeats, the Scottish coach Mike Gilbert has still not lost faith in his side. He said: ''It's asking a lot of the girls to step up to this level but we are competing well and are attacking more.''