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Scotland run riot to set record against 14-man Argentina

By PA
Scotland players celerbate a try in their game with Argentina - PA

Darcy Graham scored a hat-trick of tries as Scotland capitalised on Argentina’s indiscipline to round off their autumn series with a 52-29 victory at BT Murrayfield.

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The Pumas had Marcos Kremer red-carded in the first half and then received three yellow cards after the break, leaving them with 12 men at one point, while Scotland also had two players sin-binned in the closing quarter.

Despite having at least a one-man advantage for almost three-quarters of the match, it was only in the closing stages that Scotland – inspired by the outstanding Finn Russell – were able to pull away and put the outcome beyond doubt.

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The hosts got off to a bad start when they conceded a penalty within 20 seconds, after Jonny Gray entered the first ruck of the match illegally. Edinburgh wing Emiliano Boffelli duly put the first points on the board for Argentina when he sent his kick between the posts.

Scotland responded with a brilliant try in the 11th minute, when Sione Tuipulotu received a perfectly-timed offload from Russell and darted his way beyond a cluster of Pumas to score. Russell converted.

The home support were silenced five minutes later, however, when Jeronimo De La Fuente bounded over on the left despite the close attentions of Ali Price. Boffelli was wide with his conversion attempt.

Argentina’s hopes of a result were dealt a major blow in the 23rd minute when they were reduced to 14 men after back-rower Kremer was shown a red card for a dangerous tackle on Jamie Ritchie following a TMO review.

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Scotland made the extra man count almost immediately as Russell offloaded to Duhan Van Der Merwe just in front of the line and the wing juggled the ball between his hands before forcing it down in the 25th minute. Russell was successful with the conversion.

Just three minutes later, the Scots scored again when Graham bolted his way over on the right after an excellent flowing move, with Russell the architect in chief – but this time Russell’s kick was inaccurate.

Argentina refused to capitulate and in the last action of the half, Matias Alemanno barged his way over to score following a sustained period of pressure in front of the Scottish line. Boffelli converted to ensure the Scots went in only 19-15 ahead at the interval.

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Scotland reasserted their authority just a minute into the second half, however, when Graham was released on the right following good play by Russell and Stuart Hogg. Russell hooked his kick wide of the posts.

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Gregor Townsend’s side – at this point leading 24-15 – were presented with a great opportunity to turn the screw on their opponents going into the closing half-hour when the Pumas were temporarily reduced to 12 men after Alemanno and Tomas Lavanini were both sent to the sin-bin within a minute of each other.

Incredibly, despite having three men less than their hosts, Argentina scored a breakaway try when Boffelli raced beneath the posts in the 52nd minute and added the extras himself.

Three minutes later, Tuipulotu went over on the right for his second try of the afternoon, with Russell kicking the conversion.

Almost as soon as Argentina had welcomed their two players back from the sin-bin, a mass brawl erupted just after the hour mark which resulted in Scotland captain Ritchie and Pumas prop Thomas Gallo being yellow-carded.

The Scots eventually started to pull away from their bedraggled visitors in the closing 11 minutes when Cam Redpath, Hogg and Graham all helped themselves to tries, with Russell converting all three.

Tuipulotu was sin-binned right at the death, before Argentina replacement Ignacio Ruiz scored a try – converted by Nicolas Sanchez – in the last action of an eventful match featuring 12 tries and six cards.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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