Maitland carries Scotland to gritty triumph
If the definition of progress is grinding out wins when you are not playing well and have lost two of the previous three matches, then this was mission accomplished. If it is to entertain and enthuse a capacity crowd on a dank Edinburgh autumn afternoon, this performance missed the mark by a country mile.
For a crowd used to the free-flowing pyrotechnics that have become the norm under Gregor Townsend, this stodgy, risk-averse fare in dismal conditions came as a shock to the system.
Not that Townsend will care overly. The Scotland coach is enough of a pragmatist to know that the overriding priority against the Pumas was to end the afternoon ahead on the scoreboard, but it was a horribly close run thing.
They were, for a start, lucky hooker Fraser Brown was not given at least a yellow card for a high and late tackle on Ramiro Moyano, and had Nicolas Sanchez done an even halfway passable impression of an internationalquality goal-kicker, the outcome would surely have been different. He missed three eminently kickable penalties, two from right in front of the posts.
For Scotland, Greig Laidlaw was his usual dependable self, missing just one long-range penalty and a touchline conversion but kicking the three regulation penalties that came his way.
Scotland took their one try chance while Argentina’s backs contrived to butcher theirs. The home side’s came out of nothing with 15 minutes remaining. Stuart Hogg spotted Argentina’s defence was too narrow, and the Pumas were short-staffed on the short side. Hearing his call, Laidlaw switched the ball right and Hogg fed Sean Maitland, who won the foot race for the corner for his fifth try in seven Tests.
Argentina spurned their one real opportunity, with nine minutes left Jeronimo de la Fuente was put clear in Scotland’s 22 and was about to deliver the scoring pass only to knock on, one of those mythical fine margins all players now bang on about.
Otherwise, there was precious little to choose between the sides in this extended arm-wrestle.
For the first 40 minutes, little went right for either team. There was a prodigious amount of kicking, much of it poor, and even more knock-ons.
The drizzle and slippery ball made a higher than usual error count an inevitability, while two aggressive defences further eroded the margin for mistakes. Neither side managed to apply any sustained pressure but Scotland edged the half 6-3.
One reason Sanchez had so many chances was Scots breakdown shortcomings, where they once again turned over a worrying amount of ball and threw in a liberal dollop of indiscipline.
Argentina’s first penalty, for instance, came when Simon Berghan handled in the ruck, while the second and third were both given against Adam Hastings, the first of which was for holding on and the second for going off his feet.
If Hastings was perhaps a little overeager, his credit ledger also had a couple of notable entries. Before he was taken off after 60 minutes, the youngster’s two fantastic breaks were the only time Scotland got in behind the Argentine defensive line, with both runs yielding penalties for Laidlaw.
However, despite Scotland fielding an exciting back division, this was not the day for running rugby but one for digging in, and that was exactly what Scotland did.