Chris Cusiter's column

It's hard not to feel that we missed a great opportunity to reach the semi-finals, but it just wasn't to be.

The team worked so hard to get to where we did with the hard-fought win over Italy.

We put ourselves in a great position to snatch it at the end of the match, but couldn't convert our dominance into the necessary points.

After bringing the game down to a few points at the break, we needed to capitalise on our momentum, but overall, Argentina defended really well to frustrate us.

As you would expect, the mood in the camp afterwards was pretty flat.

The game didn't finish until 11pm and after fulfilling various media duties it was late by the time we all boarded the bus to leave.

Eventually, some of the players split up into groups - some went over to the Champs Elysees, and some of us met up with our wives and girlfriends to go out or to reflect on things back at the hotel, trying to come to terms with our exit.

The squad has been together since June, which is quite a while with our focus on preparing for the World Cup.

It is a long time for a group of players to spend together, and everything was focused on the big tournament.

So, now I've just returned to Edinburgh and it suddenly feels a little strange to be away from all the gala rugby atmosphere in France.

Some of the guys, including myself, are now adjusting to the process of changing clubs and moving on with their individual careers.

Unfortunately, in international terms, the World Cup is only on every four years so now we'll have to wait until then.

Looking back over the last few weeks, it felt a little odd that some of the games took place outwith France and, in Scotland's case, facing New Zealand at Murrayfield.

I reckon the players would have preferred to remain in France, but I guess we did have home advantage, although the French played their quarter-final in Cardiff and it ended up working out well for them.

Now we have to look towards the Six Nations, and hopefully we can keep the majority of our young squad together in the long term for another run at the next World Cup.

Despite the disappointment, I will watch the rest of the tournament on tv, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

I think Argentina will have to find another gear to get past South Africa, but they are capable of victory despite being the underdogs.

As we've seen, an in-form Argentina have proved to be the dark horses so far.

It's difficult to predict a winner, however, France have a great chance. They are on home soil and confidence will be high in their ranks, especially after beating New Zealand.

Meanwhile, I have signed for Perpignan for the next two years and I will be going over there later this week.

I'm very excited about the prospect of playing there as they have a very passionate following - just like the French public have shown all through the World Cup - with an average crowd of around 15,000 for their games.

Of course the other attractions are the change of lifestyle, language and culture, and I now intend to fully focus on playing as well as possible for Perpignan.

Everything about the move is a big challenge for me personally so it's now time to look forward to club rugby.

Chris Cusiter was talking to BBC Sport's Julian Taylor

Chris will be answering some of your questions during the World Cup. If you would like to ask him a question, fill in the form at the top right of this page (website users only; not available on mobiles).

Source: BBC Sport