SCOTS PASS A TEST OF NERVES
Townsend’s men turn on style in second half to punish Pumas and keep the series alive
SCOTLAND spoiled Argentina’s Independence Day celebrations with a resounding victory that takes the three-match Test series to a deciding game.
The hosts may have been on a high on their special occasion but were brought down to earth by a gritty Scotland performance.
It was an inspirational display from Hamish Watson, who scored Scotland’s opening try on his 50th cap that helped lay the foundations for their triumph.
His fellow flanker Rory Darge was another hero, as it was his tackle on Santiago Carreras that forced the Argentine man to drop the ball when over the try-line.
The other stand-out was scrumhalf Ben White on his first start for his country.
Scotland went in two points ahead at the break but stretched away with ease in the second period to win at a canter. They ran in four tries with Watson, Mark Bennett, Matt Fagerson and Sam Johnson all going over.
The victory made it a clean-sweep for northern hemisphere teams, with Ireland beating New Zealand, England overcoming Australia and Wales stunning South Africa.
The only concern for Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend to ponder heading into the third and final Test is the number of unforced errors his team made in the first half, especially in attack. They improved in the second period but they need to cut out the mistakes over the full 80 minutes.
The pick of the Scotland backs was winger Darcy Graham, whose runs from deep provided the spark his team needed. The other wide man, Duhan van der Merwe, was quiet apart from one decent run. The jury remains out on Blair Kinghorn at fly-half. The Edinburgh No10, who had to move to full-back in the second half because of an injury to Kyle Rowe, didn’t move the ball well enough and his kicking was also inconsistent.
Scotland made the perfect start with Kinghorn putting over a penalty after just three minutes but that was cancelled out by one from his Edinburgh team-mate Emiliano Boffelli two minutes later.
The tourists didn’t get into the Argentine 22 for the whole of the opening half in the first Test defeat last week but it took them only six minutes to do so this time.
Unfortunately for them, hooker Dave Cherry’s first throw in to an attacking line out was squint, which gave away possession.
Kinghorn didn’t start well, kicking the ball out on the full when he was under no pressure.
The first real attack from either side came after a terrific break from Carreras, with Van der Merwe having to put in a try-saving tackle on Jeronimo De La Fuente, who was heading in at the corner. There were unforced errors from both sides, with Cherry failing yet again to find his own men in the line-out.
Scotland needed a spark and it came from Graham after 23 minutes. He took a high ball at pace, taking two defenders out as he moved inside before offloading to Kinghorn. The fly-half spread the ball along the line with two defenders needed to bundle Van der Merwe into touch to save a certain try.
It was Argentina’s turn to press, with Boffelli nearly breaking through the Scotland defence then Carreras was stopped short.
They won a penalty when Ben White was penalised for a high tackle on Rodrigo Bruni from in front of the posts that Boffelli kicked successfully. Argentina infringed at the restart but rather than take the penalty from in front of the posts, captain Grant Gilchrist instructed kicker Kinghorn to aim for the corner.
The gamble paid off, Scotland winning the line-out and the pack rumbling forward. There was no stopping them as Watson flew in to touch down. Kinghorn missed the relatively easy conversion three minutes from the break.
Full-back Rory Hutchinson then had to come off injured with his replacement Kyle Rowe failing to gather the restart in his first involvement on his debut.
He made up for it minutes later, however, with a superb try-saving tackle on De La Fuente just before the half-time whistle.
Scotland made a superb start to the second half after an initial break from Darge off the line-out just two minutes in.
The ball was taken forward by Pierre Schoeman before White, on his first start for his country, offloaded to Bennett, who ran a great line to score under the posts and Kinghorn put over the conversion.
Argentina thought they had scored through Guido Petti but it was disallowed for a forward pass from Juan Imhoff.
Rowe, who had come on as a replacement with two minutes left in the first half, had to go off injured nine minutes into the second period. Ross Thompson came on for him, playing at ten with Kinghorn moving from there to full-back.
Graham made a superb break and Boffelli was shown a yellow card for illegally stopping a Scotland attacking move. Down to 14 men,
the home side was there for the taking and Matt Fagerson went over, with Thompson kicking the conversion.
Carreras, who was the pick of the Argentinians, did all the hard work breaking through the Scotland defence before a superb tackle from Darge forced him to drop the ball just as he was ready to touch down.
With 64 minutes on the clock, the Scots made the game safe thanks to a Johnson try converted by Thompson.
Argentina were left chasing the game with Kinghorn making a superb try-saving tackle on Imhoff, who looked like he was certain to go over and score in the corner.
With ten minutes left, Watson went off after putting in a superb performance to be replaced by Andy Christie.
SCORERS; Argentina — Pens: Boffelli (2). Scotland — Tries: Watson, Bennett, M Fagerson, Johnson. Cons: Kinghorn, Thompson (2). Pen: Kinghorn.