This was the Scotland of old, the one we have gladly learned to forget under Gregor Townsend: stodgy, unimaginative and unable to score many tries. The crucial difference between this game and years past, however, was that despite those defects, they still found a way to win, ending their autumn series with a record of two victories and two losses.
Greig Laidlaw contributed nine points with the boot, and Sean Maitland belatedly lit up a monochrome match with the only try of the game, but the outcome arguably owed as much to Argentinian failings as it did to Scottish doggedness. Stand-off Nicolás Sánchez scored all of his team’s points with three penalties, but he was wide with three other attempts on goal, while Emiliano Boffelli also missed with one.
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Townsend noted that a rainy afternoon had deterred his team from playing their usual game, but he was satisfied with how they had adapted. “The conditions led to a game that was going to be more kicking – more forward carries, less width in our game,” the head coach said.
“Maybe not the aesthetics that we’ve seen when you get dry conditions, but you’ve got to make sure you put pressure on the opposition in different ways. Our kick-chase was excellent. It was a different way to win a game and we’re delighted we got a breakthrough with that try and held on.”
Perseverance, as Laidlaw added, was also important. “Could we have played a little bit better?” the scrum-half said. “Yes, we could have. It was frustrating, but sometimes you just need to be patient and not try to force things too much and do things in the right areas.”
As often happens, the big talking point before the game – Townsend’s selection of twin playmakers in Adam Hastings at 10 and Finn Russell at 12 – appeared to have little impact on proceedings. With insufficient evidence on which to reach a definitive conclusion, the coach is minded to continue with the experiment.
“Nothing will be perfect the first time you put people in new positions,” he said. “I felt Adam got more into the game as the first half went on and Finn really took a grip of the game when he moved to 10 [after an hour]. It’s something that we will consider in the future..”
Laidlaw opened the scoring with a fourth-minute penalty after a bright start by Scotland and after missing his first attempt on goal Sánchez eventually levelled after half an hour. That score spurred Scotland into producing their most positive play since the opening minutes, with a Hastings break eventually leading to another successful penalty from Laidlaw that put them ahead at the break.
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Sánchez levelled soon after the restart, but then missed with another penalty before Laidlaw prodded his team back in front.
Maitland’s try, created by some smart thinking from Stuart Hogg, came with a quarter of an hour to play, and although Sánchez made it 14-9 with five minutes to play, Scotland finished on top, with Laidlaw able to afford the luxury of a last-minute penalty miss.
Apart from suggesting that Fraser Brown should have been shown a yellow card in the first half for a dangerous tackle, the Pumas coach, Mario Ledesma, had no complaints about the outcome. “We missed 15 points and a couple of line breaks,” he said. “We need to put any opportunities away.”
Jerónimo de la Fuente’s knock-on inside the Scottish 22 with the score at 14-6 was the most glaring failure to turn pressure into points, although Scotland’s scrambled defence deserves some of the credit for that.