Lackluster Argentina Humbled by Scotland in Córdoba

It did not go to plan for Argentina on Saturday. Los Pumas were out-coached and humbled by Scotland in Córdoba. The Northern British side were 47-38 winners but were much better than nine points above the performance of the home side.

Scotland was the better team in numerous categories including aerial game, lineout, rucks and line-breaks. They were well-prepared and caught Felipe Contepomi’s Pumas out short. Argentina will require a massive lift to respond to what was an underwhelming and lackluster showing.

Los Pumas started with an early period of control. More than 20 phases were strung together with enterprising play but the Scotland defensive line was able to hold them off. A penalty saw the South Americans kicking for territory and they came away with a try after Joaquín Oviedo finished off a maul attack.

Tomás Albornoz landed the conversion but the halves combination changed with Gonzalo García off for blood regulation. New Zealander Tom Jordan was also off early for Scotland. Fellow New Zealander Fergus Burke entered to convert the opening Scotland try which was scored by Australian Sione Tuipulotu out wide.

The next try also went to Scotland and again it was scored by a player captured via eligibility rather than a homegrown Scottish rugby product. South African Pierre Schoeman scored after Argentina’s defense was visibly not covering the ruck channels.

The final try of the opening half went to an Englishman. Rory Hutchinson burst over with Jordan converting to give Scotland a 19-10 half-time lead.

The second-half started with a ray of hope for Argentina. Santiago Carreras kicked through for Rodrigo Isgró to chase and score. It proved to be temporary. What resulted was Scotland scored two quick tries through Gregor Brown and Scott Cummings. Replays showed an error from referee Nika Amashukeli as Brown had not grounded the ball; Pablo Matera held the ball up. The TMO was not consulted.

Despite his try, Isgró had an underwhelming match. He was not alone as Matías Alemanno, Mayco Vivas and Pedro Delgado will all struggle to play next week against Wales based on their performances against Scotland. A positive was the injection of Tomás Rapetti who scored his first test try for Argentina.

Scotland hit-back with tries to Gregor Hiddleston and Kyle Rowe to seal the result with eight minutes remaining. Rowe was arguably the best player on the field.

Los Pumas ended with two final tries to finish with an inflated scoreline. Lucio Cinti finished off a break to score under the posts while Agustín Moyano darted over. Albornoz converted both tries.

• A crowd of 34,560 people attended the match.
• Tomás Rapetti socorred his first test try for Argentina.
• Matías Alemanno earned his 100th cap for Argentina.
• Scott Cummings and South African prop Pierre Schoeman earned their 50th caps for Scotland.
• Gregor Hiddleston debuted for Scotland and scored his first test try.
• Faustino Sánchez Valarolo had his first test start for Argentina.

ARGENTINA (38)
TRY – J Oviedo (6′), R Isgró (42′), T Rapetti (64′), L Cinti (76′), A Moyano (77′)
CON – T Albornoz 5 (7′, 43′, 65′, 76′, 78′)
PEN – T Albornoz (34′)
YC – J Moro (68′)

SCOTLAND (47)
TRY – S Tuipulotu (17′), P Schoeman (23′), R Hutchinson (36′), G Brown (51′), S Cummings (54′), G Hiddleston (67′), K Rowe (72′)
CON – F Burke 3 (18′, 68′, 73′); T Jordan 3 (37′, 52′, 55′)
YC – J Dobie (65′)

ARGENTINA
1 Mayco Vivas, 2 Julián Montoya (capt.), 3 Pedro Delgado, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Matías Alemanno, 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Santiago Grondona, 8 Joaquín Oviedo, 9 Gonzalo García, 10 Tomás Albornoz, 11 Mateo Carreras, 12 Faustino Sánchez Valarolo, 13 Lucio Cinti, 14 Rodrigo Isgró, 15 Santiago Carreras

Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Boris Wenger, 18 Tomás Rapetti, 19 Franco Molina, 20 Joaquín Moro, 21 Agustín Moyano, 22 Matías Moroni, 23 Bautista Delguy

SCOTLAND
1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 Ewan Ashman, 3 Elliot Millar-Mills, 4 Jonny Gray, 5 Scott Cummings, 6 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge, 8 Jack Dempsey, 9 Ben White, 10 Tom Jordan, 11 Kyle Rowe, 12 Sione Tuipulotu (capt.), 13 Rory Hutchinson, 14 Kyle Steyn, 15 Jamie Dobie

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
Assistant Referees: Jordan Way (Australia); Paul Williams (New Zealand)
Television Match Official: Brett Cronan (Australia)
Split Screen/FPRO: Eric Gauzins (France)