HUSTLE MEN
Darge’s delight as Scots give Pumas a pummelling
RORY DARGE believes Scotland’s ‘hustle’ was key to the team managing to square their summer Test series against Argentina in Salta on Saturday night.
The performance and result provided some much needed relief for Scottish rugby after a demoralising week which saw the senior men’s team lose the series opener to the Pumas last Saturday night and the Under-20s slump to a humiliating 55-17 loss to Georgia on Wednesday afternoon.
The tourists crossed for four tries through Hamish Watson, Mark Bennett, Matt Fagerson and Sam Johnson – but Darge felt the squad were just as pleased at having limited the Pumas’ scoring to two first-half penalties.
The team’s resilience in defence was best summed up by the fact that the Pumas crossed the Scottish line on four occasions but were prevented from getting the ball down by last-gasp tackles.
Darge was to the fore in this heroic rear-guard effort, with his sensational cover tackle on Santiago Carreras dislodging the ball as the Argentinean playmaker dived over the line.
The flanker said: “There a lot of questions asked after last week and I’m delighted that we managed to give a good response.
“It was really tight in the first half with a two-point swing in it going into halftime but we came out and played well after the break.
“A word we talk about a lot as a squad is hustle and when we look back at that game we will see lots of it.”
All eyes now turn to the series decider in Santiago next Saturday night.
Momentum may be on Scotland’s side but an Argentinean backlash is inevitable.
And the Scots have a frustrating habit in recent years of producing excellent one-off performances but failing to build on them.
For example, in the last two Six Nations they have beaten England on the opening weekend only to let golden opportunities against Wales slip through their collective fingers in round two of the championship.
In fact, the only time Scotland have managed back-towas back wins in the same series against teams ranked in the top 10 in the world during the Gregor Townsend era was against England and France way back during the 2018 Six Nations.
Darge added: “We know there is a lot more still to come from us and next week is massive now.
“We didn’t come here to win one game. We want to win the next game and we want to win the series.
“So, we’ll enjoy this result then we will all focus in on next week.”
Meanwhile, scrum-half Ben White paid tribute to the Scottish pack for silencing a raucous crowd at the Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena.
He said: “Our kick-chase went really well, we were able to put them under pressure at restarts and our forward pack was outstanding.
“The scrum was dominant which created opportunities for us to put them under pressure in attack.
“We managed to silence the crowd quite well through keeping possession, building pressure, and making sure that when they had the ball they had to play in the wrong area. Our defence at the end to hold them out was really good and it just shows the courage within the team.”