SCOTLAND’S summer Test series against Argentina will go to the wire after Gregor Townsend’s side shook off a lacklustre first half performance to score 21 unanswered point after the break which secured a comprehensive win.
Momentum is firmly on Scotland’s side. They were under pressure after underperforming in defeat during last week’s series opener, but a South American backlash is almost inevitable when these sides clash again in the third and final Test of the series in Santiago next Saturday night.
This win secured a clean sweep for the northern hemisphere sides against their southern hemisphere rivals, with Frace beating Japan, Ireland beating New Zealand, England beating Australia and Wales beating South Africa earlier in the day.
Gregor Townsend spoke during the week about the importance of Scotland starting well, and they managed that, with Ben White’s long clearance of the kick-off leading to a platform scrum just inside Argentina’s half and the visitors got the upper hand at that set-piece. A few phases later, the Pumas gave away an offside penalty, allowing Blair Kinghorn to fire the tourists into a third minute lead.
But, almost inevitably, Scotland then conceded a kickable penalty just two minutes later with Grant Gilchrist guilty of a neckroll, which meant Emiliano Boffelli was able to immediately cancel out that early advantage on the scoreboard.
Dave Cherry then threw a squint line-out on Argentina’s 22, and Scotland struggled to recover their early momentum, and when they eventually did manage to string a sequence of phases together a mix-up in midfield between Sam Johnson and Mark Bennett saw Scotland surrender 40 easy yards.
A moment of magic from Darcy Graham, when he leaped heroically to claim White’s box kick half created Scotland’s first proper attack midway through the first, but when the ball was shipped left, Duhan van der Merwe allowed himself to be squeezed into touch.
As was the case last week, Scotland were tentative in attack, with their error count meaning that Argentina were never really stretched for any meaningful length of time in defence.
A high tackle by White on Rodrigo Bruni handed Boffelli three easy points to Argentina just after the half hour, and this time Scotland responded positively, turning down three kickable points following an offside by Gonzalo Bertanou and got their reward when Hamish Watson burrowed over from the line-out drive.
Kinghorn’s conversion floated harmlessly to the right of the posts, but Scotland were ahead, which was important psychologically because they had dominated possession during that first period.
In a repeat of last week, Scotland fired out of the blocks and quickly stretched their lead when some hard running and hast recycling culminated in White feeding Mark Bennett on a brilliant line, for the outside centre to zip home for his second try in two weeks.
A Rory Darge and Watson double tackle then won a scrum as the visitors turned up the heat, but Argentina were not going to go down without a fight, and they thought they had pulled a try back through the rampaging Guido Petti, but the TMO identified a forward pass earlier in the move so the try weas chalked off.]
Argentina were then reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes when Boffelli was sin-binned after referee Mathieu Reynard lost patience with the number of penalties the home side were conceding, and Scotland took advantage with Matt Fagerson muscling over for try number three.
Argentina continued to challenge and it took a last gasp tackle by Darge on Santiago Carreras to dislodge the ball in the act of scoring just before the hour mark.
Sam Johnson then repeated the trick of his midfield partner Bennett earlier in the half when he hit a great angle to score under the posts which killed off the match off as a contest.
