Argentina v Scotland: 5 Things We (Still Haven’t) Learned

After their 26-18 defeat in the first test, it is hard to know where to start with Scotland. Other than the nagging feeling that we’ve seen it all before.

There may not be any cavalry this time

This wasn’t Scotland vs Italy in the Six Nations, where if you send out some of the understudies and they get a torrid time you recall the big guns for the next game.

This particular iteration of Gregor Townsend’s Scotland is without Hogg, Russell, Harris, Watson and Ritchie, five guys who would likely all start a Six Nations game if fit. The emphasis is on development, and finding backup players for the next World Cup.

Barring Hamish Watson, who is at least on the tour, no big guns are waiting in reserve. The solution, if there is to be one, must come from within.

Players out of position is something we have discussed a lot, but seeing Crosbie at 6 and Hutchinson at 12 would, I suspect, give us a much clearer picture of their merits. The latter might also make some space for the standoff inside them.

Which brings us to:

Kinghorn is not a 10, but he might have to be

Blair Kinghorn carried the can for that one on a lot of social media, but it is unfair to put all the blame on him. When Scotland played their best 15-20 minutes just after half time he was at the heart of both attacking moves that resulted in tries: delivering a nice pass across to Bennett who scythed in at the corner, and running a curving arc of his own to set up a simple switch move with fullback Rory Hutchinson that put the Saints man over the line.

That showed what he can do in attack, but both of those moves could quite as easily have been a full back coming into the line. The rest of the game was lacking in direction at standoff, with some aimless kicking and one pass to no-one during a simple attack move that gives plenty of ammunition to the doubters.

Where he could easily improve the attack would be to give more ball to Hutchinson, who looked impressive in brief cameos. Consider the amount of touches on the ball that Hogg gets in a typical game, and what Hutchinson could spark with a similar level of involvement. Whether that should be a 12 or at 15? (Hutchinson & Bennett at 12/13 please).

In an ideal world, Russell and Hastings would be your starting tens and Kinghorn offers a variety of cover there and across the back three – making him a good bench choice. So what are we really learning?

The rest of the team were equally culpable – the pack in particular – for the lack of genuine input Scotland had into the outcome of this game. Even Finn Russell might have struggled to look good. With Ross Thompson the only genuine 10 cover but even rawer than Kinghorn at test level, expect Blair to get another shot at redemption next weekend.

Restarts are still a killer

Darcy Graham catching a restart with a foot in touch was pretty bad, but allowing Edinburgh man Emiliano Boffelli to reclaim the Argentinian restart just after Scotland’s two decent tries was a momentum killer. Scotland had just worked themselves into the game and then they worked themselves right out of it again.

After that try, aside from the forward pass non-try (that no-one reviewed, thanks Argentinian TV guy), they were always struggling to keep the scoreboard under control and could not haul Argentina back within reach.

The silly penalties are getting sillier

There were plenty of errors (see forward passes, restarts above) but discipline was a big issue during the Six Nations and once again it provided the opposition with easy territory and possession. Toony seemed like he didn’t rate all of Nic Berry’s decisions, and the TMO sounded like he was having a fair amount of hassle getting access to the footage he wanted, but as usual the mantra is the same: play to the whistle.

Scotland struggled for possession early on, so to see a lineout go astray (oops), only for Zander Fagerson to recover it (phew) only for him to get pinged for holding on (oops) was a good example of Scotland compounding errors with more errors.

There was a distinct lack of leadership to calm the situation down when something went wrong. It’s a game of rugby, things will go wrong. It is how you recover from that and Scotland looked a little rudderless under the captaincy of Gilchrist and the direction of Kinghorn. So things got worse each time, and Argentina were ideally placed to capitalise without having to play brilliant rugby too much.

Perhaps luckily for Scotland, Argentina gave away the same number of penalties as they received (10 apiece) so trading kickable penalties was a common feature of the match, even if Argentina only had 57% success with the boot. If the hosts tighten up their discipline and kicking next weekend, Scotland better be damn sure to tighten up theirs.

Argentina deserve more credit

Los Pumas were playing their first home test in nearly 3 years, they have a team stacked with experience and their largely exiled players are operating at the highest level (and Edinburgh).

New coach Michael Cheika couldn’t have expected a better start.

To think our not-quite-first XV had any right to steamroll them playing thousands of miles from home at altitude was naive. None of the team or managment would admit this was the expectation but it certainly seemed that Scotland did not come out of the blocks at full pelt expecting a test match.

I was genuinely surprised when the half time whistle went, as it barely seemed like anything had happened, certainly on Scotland’s part.

Argentina ran the ball 10 more times than Scotland but made almost double the metres (389 to 200). They weren’t flashy, but they weren’t afraid to play either. This should have been a fun watch. And it was if you are an Argentina fan or a neutral. The team who ventured the most, won.

The speed of their defence was very good, with every half break pounced upon by defenders. 14 turnovers were conceded by the Scots through various sloppiness, but even the ones that weren’t nicked slowed the speed of Scotland’s ball to allow the defence to re-assemble. Rinse, repeat.

Our pack need to clear out tacklers more quickly or better yet get beyond the gainline, if they can.

In short, there is plenty to work on for next weekend’s second test.

Additional Reporting: John Anderson and Jonny McGinty. Stats via ESPN

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