Laidlaw gets a kick out of narrow win over Pumas

SCOTLAND ARGENTINA 14 9

SKIPPER Greig Laidlaw was relieved to see Scotland avoid a slip-up against Argentina amid tricky Murrayfield conditions.

A greasy ball made life tough for both sides, but it was the hosts who came out on top thanks to Sean Maitland’s try.

Gregor Townsend named an adventurous back-line that also contained Adam Hastings and Finn Russell as dual pivots, plus the talents of Huw Jones, Stuart Hogg and Blair Kinghorn.

The Dark Blues had to rein in their flamboyance as they struggled to hold onto the ball.

But Laidlaw, who kicked nine points, praised his side for grinding out the win.

He said: “It was all about going out and getting the win, at this level it’s all about winning games.

“We were delighted to do that as it was very difficult in terms of the conditions.

“Could we have played a little bit better? Yes, we could have, but we scored a nice try right at the end to take the game away from them.

“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.

“I thought Finn was really good today in terms of the way he helped Adam and in the way he helped me at the end with his chip kicking and little bits of play in front of goal.

“That’s probably what got us over the line.”

Having lost to Wales and South Africa either side of their eight-try demolition job on Fiji, victory over the Pumas gives the Scots some momentum ahead of the Six Nations.

And Laidlaw is now looking ahead to February’s opener at home to Italy with excitement.

“As a whole we are in a very good place,” he said. “The boys put in a big performance down in Wales in a venue which isn’t easy to win at.

“It was a game we were right in and probably should have scored another try and it would have been a different game.

“There was a strong performance against Fiji and we all know we were within touching distance against the fifth best team in the world in the shape of South Africa and then a good win today.

“We will go away and learn and refocus with the coaches and we’ll come back better and ready to take on the Six Nations.”

Maitland dived over in the corner after 66 minutes after Laidlaw and Hogg spotted an overload down the right-hand side.