Match Report: Argentina 38-47 Scotland

In the Estadio Mario Kempes, so named after Argentina’s irrepressible 1978 World Cup hero, it was Scotland who swaggered their way to victory on their competition bow.

The opening exchanges were dominated by Argentina, who went through no fewer than 24 phases in the wake of a Scottish defence who very quickly had to source a second wind on account of so much early duty.

Tom Jordan, on his first international start at stand-off, succumbed to an early Head Injury Assessment (HIA), with Fergus Burke on in his stead within five minutes of kick-off.

The hosts’ belligerence paid dividends with a penalty for not rolling away, from which Argentina grabbed the opening try. A rapidly-worked line-out saw number 8 Joaquín Oviedo thunder over, with Tomás Albornoz converting (7-0, 8 mins).

Los Pumas had the bit between their teeth and winger Matias Carreras threatened to go in on the left, but a good scramble from Kyle Rowe and then Jack Dempsey eventually forced a knock-on, from which Scotland won a scrum penalty to boost the visitors’ morale.

With Elliot Millar Mills another withdrawal in the first quarter, the physical nature of this Test was apparent to all.

Yet Scotland fronted up to the challenge, soaking up all manner of hits in midfield as they probed their own way into proceedings and they were rewarded with a score that owed much to Rory Hutchinson’s fabulous skill.

The centre performed a standing-step which confused the home defence, lopping his ball out to the right wing where captain Sione Tuipulotu was on hand to dot down. Burke converted before being replaced by Jordan, who had passed his HIA (7-7, 19 mins).

And it became a double fillip for Scotland soon after, Kyle Rowe jinking and racing into Argentina’s 22, before Pierre Schoeman – a half-centurion now – crashed over to give his side the lead from the next ruck phase (7-12, 23 mins).

Another scintillating break, involving Rowe once more, saw the ball go dead from Jamie Dobie’s grubber through, but an ability to strike from deep was causing all manner of problems for the home side.

Argentina stemmed the tide when Albornoz landed a 40-metre penalty after Matt Fagerson was penalised by referee Nika Amashukeli from not rolling away (10-12, 33 mins).

But Scotland again replied in style, with Tuipulotu punching a hole in the hosts’ defence inside their 22 to allow the time for the ball to be played out to the left, where Hutchinson’s show-and-go saw the centre career over, with Jordan converting (10-19, 37 mins).

As the interval approached, there were some gentle fisticuffs as Scotland won a penalty for their opponents holding on in the tackle, but Argentina’s desperate defence held off Ewan Ashman’s attempt to convert a driving line-out maul and they got the ball of the park after completing the ensuing scrum.

Half-time: Argentina 10-19 Scotland

Argentina started the second half as they had the first, blistering out of the traps with intent as Rodrigo Isgró kept his calm to collect an Albornoz grubber to immediately cut into the seven-point half-time arrears, with the latter’s conversion adding another two (17-19, 43 mins).

Unlike the opening 40, it was Argentina who exerted scrum dominance, winning a set piece penalty to complete a cycle of four transgressions in quick succession, although Scotland did counter in forcing a knock-on to halt Los Pumas’ momentum.

That prompted a change in narrative and Gregor Brown, not long on the pitch, got Scotland’s fourth, bonus-point try. Ashman broke from a line-out maul, flipped the ball out of the back of his hand to Ben White, and Brown was on hand to finish the job from close range at the next phase, with Jordan adding a tidy conversion (17-26, 52 mins).

Scott Cummings, on his own 50^th international appearance, then scored an absolute beauty of a breakaway try. From a turnover on halfway, Rowe fed White, who lobbed the ball up for the big onrushing second row, whose support running had all the shades of Iain Paxton in Cardiff in 1984, and a try was the reward as Jordan converted once more (17-33, 57 mins).

Gregor Hiddleston came on for Ashman to become Scotland cap number 1239 as Gregor Townsend wrung the changes and emptied his bench for the final quarter in Cordoba.

This see-saw battle took another turn when Tomas Rapetti scored from close range despite what appeared an excellent attempt to thwart from Dobie, who was then sin-binned as a result of repeated team infringements (24-33, 66 mins).

But yet again, Scotland hit back straight away and it was the debutant Hiddleston who finished off a textbook rolling maul to retake their 16-point cushion after Burke had added the extras (24-40, 69 mins).

The away side were in seventh heaven not long after, the outstanding Rowe skirting around the last man after Darcy Graham popped his full-back in on the right touchline, with Burke’s conversion offering two more to the tally (24-47, 73 mins).

Lucio Cinti pulled one back for Argentina to grab their own bonus point (31-47, 76 mins) and Agústin Moyano added another converted score to further bite into the scoreboard (38-47, 79 mins), but Scotland had too much of a buffer as they saw out a fine victory on their Nations Championship debut.

Full-time: Argentina 38-47 Scotland

Argentina: S Carreras, Isgro, Cinti, Valarolo, M Carreras; Albornoz, Garcia; Vivas, Montoya (captain), Delgado, Petti, Alemanno, Matera, Grondona, Oviedo.

Replacements: Ruiz, Wenger, Rapetti, Molina, Moro, Moyano, Moroni, Delguy.

Scotland: Kyle Rowe, Kyle Steyn (both Glasgow Warriors), Rory Hutchinson (Northampton Saints), Sione Tuipulotu (captain), Jamie Dobie (both Glasgow Warriors); Tom Jordan (Bristol Bears), Ben White (Toulon); Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman (both Edinburgh Rugby), Elliot Millar Mills (Northampton Saints), Jonny Gray (Perpignan), Scott Cummings, Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge (all Glasgow Warriors), Jack Dempsey (Toshiba Brave Lupus).

Replacements: Gregor Hiddleston (Glasgow Warriors) (for Ashman, 60 mins), Rory Sutherland (Glasgow Warriors) (for Schoeman, 60 mins), Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) (for Millar Mills, 13 mins), Alex Samuel (Glasgow Warriors) (for Dempsey, 60 mins), Gregor Brown (Glasgow Warriors) (for Gray, 48 mins), George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) (for White, 60 mins), Fergus Burke (Saracens) (for Jordan, 4 mins HIA, then 66 mins), Darcy Graham (Edinburgh Rugby) (for Steyn, 60 mins).

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (GRU)
Assistant Referees: Paul Williams (NZR) and Jordan Way (RA)
TMO: Brett Cronan (RA)
FPRO: Eric Gauzins (FFR)

Player of the Match: Sione Tuipulotu