ALL THE WAY AS THEY EKE OUT A WIN OVER PUMAS

Emiliano Boffelli missed penalty attempts, though they came close to a try when Sanchez poked the ball through and Ramiro Moyano couldn’t get the final touch in the corner.

As the half-hour approached Sanchez finally and deservedly drew the visitors level when Hamish Watson was penalised for preventing quick ball at the ruck bang in front of the posts.

Scotland’s twin-playmaker ploy simply wasn’t working as Finn Russell looked lost and impotent at inside centre and Hastings wasn’t controlling things from 10.

But the main problem was that for the second game on the spin Scotland were getting beaten at the breakdown, not committing enough numbers and allowing the Pumas to prosper there.

Laidlaw nudged Scotland back in front when Sanchez was pinged for not releasing but it was poor fare and the sides turned round with Argentina 6-3 down after a half in which they’d comfortably had the upper hand everywhere bar the scoreboard.

But within three minutes of the restart Hastings gave away his third kickable penalty of the afternoon and Sanchez booted the Pumas level.

He missed another from yet another breakdown penalty but when a high tackled ended Scotland’s long-awaited first flurry of flowing, attacking rugby Laidlaw restored the narrow lead.

Scotland’s record of having scored a try in 25 Tests on the trot looked in danger of juddering to a halt until the 66th minute when the ball was moved wide and Hogg’s pass allowed Maitland to speed over in the far corner.

But Argentina weren’t for giving up and Jeronimo De La Fuente thought he had the whitewash in his sights until Sam Skinner’s trysaving tackled caused him to spill the ball forwards.

Sanchez reduced the arrears when Allan Dell was penalised, making for a very uncomfortable final few minutes, especially as Laidlaw was just short with a lastminute penalty.