GREGOR Townsend expressed his pride in his young Scotland squad last night after their six-try demolition of Argentina in Resistencia last night. The tourists won 44-15 at the Estadio Centenario – their biggest away win over the Pumas, and the best result against those opponents since a 49-3 win back in 1990.
What was most impressive was the confidence shown by the Scots despite the big difference in experience, especially for George Horne and Adam Hastings. The scrum-half and stand-off controlled the game, with Horne getting two of his team’s six tries – five of which came in the first half.
“The 140-cap difference was a huge challenge for our half-backs, but they thrived in that environment, which is really encouraging for the future,” Townsend said. “We said this is a unique occasion, end of tour, let’s go out and enjoy it.
“This doesn’t happen very often in Test-match rugby, when you execute almost everything perfectly in the first half. It was excellent play by our players.”
Townsend also paid homage to Fraser Brown, who is normally a hooker with Glasgow and Scotland but played at openside flanker last night. “Fraser is an excellent hooker. His back went into spasm yesterday, he had a fever overnight, but he still went out and produced that.”
Stuart McInally, captaining the team for the first time after recovering from the thigh strain that kept him out of the win over Canada and the loss to the USA, was just as pleased by the performance – one of the best from Scotland in recent years.
“[In] the first half we did everything we spoke about,” he said. “Our defence was a step up from last week and that gave us good possession. It was nice to get on the score sheet.
“We ran out and we did what we said we would do during the week, and that’s all you can ask for. I thought the half-backs controlled the game really well. We’re really quite happy today.”
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