Never in doubt after the Pumas saw red
The result at BT Murrayfield was never really in doubt after Argentina’s first-half red card, writes ALAN SHAW.
Pumas flanker Tomas Kremer charged into a ruck and his swinging arm caught Scotland skipper Jamie Ritchie in the head.
This wasn’t the first time a blow to Ritchie’s head has decided a Test match – France lost here in the 2020 Six Nations after prop Mohamed Haouas was sent off for punching him in the face.
Asked by Gregor Townsend how many red cards his abrasive style had drawn from opponents, the coach guessing two, a grinning Ritchie replied: “Maybe four, including club games.”
Scotland still had to work hard, and Ritchie continued: “Often when teams get red cards it can galvanise them and they can tighten it up or start to try a bit harder.
“We knew there is always a threat with that so we wanted to stick to our job.”
Ritchie himself earned a yellow card for the second-half freefor-all that saw every player bar Scotland prop Pierre Schoeman involved in a mass scuffle.
He smiled: “I just saw someone going for Darcy Graham. That’s my wee mate so I looked after him.”
On any other day Graham’s hat-trick would probably have earned him the man-of-thematch award and Ritchie added: “He’s just on fire.
“He’s playing with such confidence that whenever he’s got someone one-on-one I just expect him to beat them.
“He’s so quick off the mark, so quick at changing direction and he’s deceptively strong for his size. That in a package is awesome and he’s electric to watch. I love playing with him.
“Today we spoke about being relentless and we put 50 points on the board. “We’re delighted. We felt something had been building and we’ve been close, especially the first game (against Australia) and the game against New Zealand.
“We felt we’d played reasonably well and not quite got over the line but this week we put it a bit more together.”