Summer Tours: Scotland vs Argentina Preview

The 2018 summer tour has been a mixed bag for Scotland in 2018. After a comprehensive victory against Canada, Scotland named a stronger side for their matchup against the United States a week later. A tougher challenge was expected, but no way did the Scots expect to lose the match.

Which is exactly what they did. Scotland squandered a 21-6 lead and allowed the US back into the game with 17 unanswered points either side of half time. The final score would be 30-29 and captain Stuart Hogg spoke bluntly after the game.

The full back said; “A lot of mistakes by us allowed the Americans to get into the game. It’s really frustrating because the things we talked about at half-time, we did the complete opposite in the second half.”

After a series of good performances, the result was a setback but the Scots will have no real opportunity to dwell on it as they travelled to Argentina to play in their final Summer Tour game.

Argentina have not had a good tour either, losing twice to Wales by fairly comprehensive margins. As a result, head coach Daniel Hourcade has announced he will step down after the Scotland match. After two wins in 17 matches, Hourcade said “The players aren’t responding, the responsibility is mine. The cycle is complete.”

Whats the big team news?

Stuart McInally returns for Scotland after a calf strain kept him out of the first two matches. Grant Gilchrist also returns, and interestingly, Fraser Brown, a hooker by trade will play in the back-row.

The backline for Scotland is largely the same that lost to the USA, with the only change being Byron McGuigan coming out for Dougie Fife.

Argentina have made seven changes from the side that lost to Wales in their Second Test. Backs Bautista Ezcurra and Sebastian Cancelliere are the only changes in the backline. Whereas Leonardo Senatore, Tomas Lezana, Pablo Matera, Matias Alemanno, Javier Diaz all come into the Pumas pack. 

Improvement: Gregor Townsend will be looking for a better performance against Argentina (Getty Images)

What have the coaches said?

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend: 

“This is our last Test of the tour and we’re determined to finish on a high.

“With the majority of the squad involved in two Tests, we believe that we’ll be in a much better position in the future, having exposed more players to Test-level rugby, for the season ahead and beyond.

“We’ve learned a lot on this tour about this group of players. Now we have to use that learning to put in a very good performance to beat Argentina on their home patch.

“Argentina will bring their passion and physicality where they have traditionally been strong – set piece, ball carrying and in the contact area.

“They also have a host of excellent attacking players, and the last few seasons have seen a much more expansive brand of rugby since joining the Rugby Championship and, more recently, the performances of Jaguares in Super Rugby.”

Any interesting statistics?

• Argentina have played 25 games against tier-1 opposition in this World Cup cycle, and they have won four of them.
• Scotland are on a four-game winning streak against Argentina.
• 21-year old Bautista Delguy made his Super Rugby debut this year and has scored 8 times in 9 starts for the club.
• Referee Mathieu Raynal has officiated two previous Scotland matches, and they lost both. The first was to Tonga in 2012 and England in 2017.
• It will be the third time that Fraser Brown will play on the openside for Scotland, last weekend against USA and in the 2015 World Cup.

When does it kickoff and is it on TV?

Yes it is on TV but unlike the two Scotland matches against Canada and USA, it will not be in the early hours of the morning. Instead it will kickoff at 8.40pm (BST) on Saturday in Resistencia.

What are the lineups? 

SCOTLAND: Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors), Dougie Fife (Edinburgh), Nick Grigg (Glasgow Warriors), Pete Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh), Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors), George Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Allan Dell (Edinburgh), Stuart McInally (Edinburgh), Simon Berghan (Edinburgh), Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors), Grant Gilchrist, Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh), Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors), David Denton (Leicester Tigers).

Replacements: George Turner (Glasgow Warriors), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors), Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), Ben Toolis (Edinburgh), Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh), Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Scarlets), James Lang (Harlequins), Chris Harris (Newcastle Falcons).

ARGENTINA: 15 Emiliano Boffelli, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Bautista Ezcurra, 11 Sebastian Cancelliere, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Martin Landajo, 8 Leonardo Senatore, 7 Tomas Lezana, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Matias Alemanno, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2 Agustin Creevy (c), 1 Javier Diaz

Replacements: 16 Julian Montoya, 17 Santiago Garcia Botta, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Marcos Kremer, 20 Tomas Lavanini, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23 Juan Cruz Mallia

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