A DYNAMIC DUO OF THE FUTURE

Young half-back pair Horne and Hastings blow Argentina away

IT’S too early to say if Scotland’s fledgling half-back partnership of Adam Hastings and George Horne are the real deal.

The Glasgow Warriors duo have just five caps between them but one thing is for sure — they will at least be given the opportunity to earn more after this performance.

Hastings and Horne — even their names sound good together — ran the show against Argentina. They proved they certainly have the potential.

Yes, they were up against very poor opposition — the worst Argentina side for years — but the Pumas were playing at home and usually raise their game in front of their own fans.

Hastings was provider for both of Horne’s two first-half tries, one in the first minute that got Scotland off to the perfect start. The second — the tourists’ fifth of the game — came a minute before the break.

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend, who is searching for more competition at nine and for an understudy to Finn Russell at ten, was delighted at the way his new half-back partnership played in Resistencia.

‘There was about a 140-cap difference between the two sets of half-backs and they are quality players, Martin Landajo and Nicolas Sanchez, at nine and ten for Argentina and I love watching them play,’ said Townsend.

‘That was a huge challenge for our guys, Adam and George, on their second starts for Scotland but they played with so much positivity.

‘They went for gaps they knew were there, so that shows they were confident, they thrived in that environment. It was really encouraging for the future.

‘Adam (Hastings) is a confident guy. He obviously did not have a brilliant experience last week against the USA when we lost, though there were lots of good things on show that day. It was great to see him put that behind him.’

There were so many other positives to take from a magnificent Scotland performance put in by a hugely inexperienced starting side picked by Townsend.

Their character was certainly impressive as they shrugged off the shock 30-29 defeat to the USA last weekend to play to their full potential against Argentina.

Six tries were scored — two from George Horne and one each from Blair Kinghorn, Stuart McInally, Magnus Bradbury and Dougie Fife — as Scotland ran riot.

Argentina rallied in the second period, Tomas Lezana and Santiago Gonzalo Iglesias scored their two tries, but the game was over by half-time as Scotland led 36-3 at the break.

‘Such a perfect half does not happen very much in Test match rugby,’ said Townsend. ‘It happens even more rarely in club rugby when you go away from home and you execute almost everything well in the first half as we did against Argentina.’

The Scotland head coach paid tribute to the impressive Fraser Brown, who he had moved from hooker to flanker.

‘We just wanted our best players on the field and Fraser is an excellent hooker and was excellent over ball at flanker and he showed that today,’ said Townsend.

‘He got a few balls at the tail of the lineout, too. He got his hands on ball.

‘His back went into spasm yesterday after training, he had a fever overnight and got whacked about a few times, but still produced that outstanding performance. That is a credit to his toughness and what a good player he is.’

Townsend admitted every selection is a gamble of sorts and knew Brown would be fine against Argentina. ‘Every selection, you use the term “gamble”, as we are always looking at what is best for the team,’ he continued.

‘It fits with what we see during the week, what we know of the players and what we believe the game will go like. ‘Sometimes it does not work because the game goes differently from how you thought but it did work well moving Fraser to openside. Remember, he moved there against the USA, so I knew he would go well starting there against Argentina.’

Stuart McInally, meanwhile, relished his first match as captain after having missed out on the games against Canada and the USA.

‘I was just the lucky one who got to lead us out and I loved it,’ he admitted. ‘I woke up and I almost forgot I was captain. I’ve had so much help this week and it was just easy for me to go on to the pitch and say the last few words.

‘It was about going back to basics against Argentina and to do what we do really well, which is be accurate, play with tempo and be physical in defence.

‘We executed the game plan and we knew where the spaces were going to be.’

SCOTLAND — Hogg; Fife, Grigg (Harris 59), P Horne, Kinghorn; Hastings (Lang 72), G Horne (Hidalgo-Clyne 66); Dell (Bhatti 49), McInally (Turner 66), Berghan (Z Fagerson 49); Swinson (Toolis 5), Gilchrist; Bradbury, Denton, Brown (Ritchie 59).