Argentina v Scotland Third Test: Summer Tour 2022, Match Preview pt II – head to heads

Across the three Test series, Scotland have selected 33 of the 34-man squad that travelled on to Argentina following the ‘A’ fixture against Chile.

11 players have made all three matchday 23s (including 5 who have started all of the Tests); 14 have been involved twice; 8 have managed a single selection; and Murphy Walker is the only player not to feature.

Argentina have picked 35 different players. 13 have made all three matchday 23s (including 3 who have started all of the Tests); 9 have been involved twice; 13 have managed a single selection; and from the original 34-man squad named only Gonzalo Garcia, Benjamin Urdapilleta and Santiago Chocobares have not featured.

Changes

8 changes to Scotland’s starting XV from 2nd Test

11 changes to Argentina’s starting XV from 2nd Test

Red – change to starting XV
CAPS – selected for all 3 Tests
BOLD – started all 3 Tests for Scotland
BOLD – started all 3 Tests for Argentina
* Cubelli was injured and withdrawn before kick-off – originally selected to start at 9 with Bertranou on the bench and Imhoff not in the 23.

Tale of the tape

BACKS
34   Tries   32
88kg   Average weight   92kg
205   Total caps   138
27.3   Average age   25.9

FORWARDS
912kg   Pack weight   897kg
27   Tries   18
359   Total caps   240
28.5   Average age   26.2

SUBSTITUTES
8   Tries   17
195   Total caps   67
26.8   Average age   27.2

Head-to-Head

Overall

Backs – advantage Argentina

A simplified approach reaped significant rewards for Scotland during the second half in Salta. Strong carrying off 9 really put the pressure on the Pumas’ defence and will likely continue in Santiago – Duhan van der Merwe and Rufus Mclean will almost certainly need to come looking for work rather than expecting the ball to find them.

Forwards – even

It has been nip and tuck calling the battle between these two packs during the series. For the decider, Michael Cheika has opted to bench half of his previous starters and has lost skipper, Julian Montoya. With Thomas Gallo and Tomas Lavanini available for the first time this summer and fit again Pablo Matera restored, Scotland’s task doesn’t get any easier though. Win the battle up front and there’s a strong chance victory in the match will follow.

Subs – even

It may be four each in the direct head to heads but with five players on the Argentinian bench who started both Tests 1 and 2, the home side will be expecting (and possibly need) more of an impact from their subs in the final quarter of the game.

Miscellany 

– It has been nearly 7 years since a Scotland 23 was named that didn’t include at least one of Fraser Brown, Stuart McInally or George Turner in one of the hooker slots (27/9/15 v USA – 2. Ross Ford; 16. Kevin Bryce).

– This is the youngest Scotland starting XV (26.1 years) named for any match during the last five years with the exception of the game against USA on the 2018 Summer Tour (25.0).

– Last Saturday, Matt Fagerson became the 50th player to score a try for Scotland in the Townsend era. The current top five try scorers during this period are:

• Darcy Graham – 12
• Stuart McInally – 11
• Stuart Hogg – 10
• Sean Maitland – 10
• Duhan van der Merwe – 10

– Mark Bennett is the first player other than Chris Harris to wear the number 13 jersey for Scotland in three consecutive games since Nick Grigg during the 2019 Six Nations.

– In the First Test, Argentina’s starting XV had a 397 cap advantage over Scotland’s. That has been reduced to 186 for the deciding match.

– Sam Johnson is in line to win his first ever cap as a replacement after 26 starts in the centres.

The post Argentina v Scotland Third Test: Summer Tour 2022, Match Preview pt II – head to heads appeared first on Scottish Rugby Blog.