Scotland put away Los Pumas in spiteful Test
REPORT: Darcy Graham scored a hat-trick of tries as Scotland thrashed Argentina 52-29 in a bad-tempered clash at Murrayfield littered with ill-discipline from the visitors.
Argentina was undone by Marcos Kremer’s red card after just 21 minutes when 8-7 in front and three more yellow cards in the second half.
Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie was also sent to the sin bin after a second-half brawl between the two sets of players.
By that point Scotland led 31-22 as Finn Russell’s creativity opened up the Argentine defence for Duhan van der Merwe to put the hosts in front before Darcy Graham crossed twice on either side of half-time.
Argentina was reduced to 12 men for just short of 10 minutes due to quickfire yellow cards for Matias Alemanno and Tomas Lavanini.
But remarkably it was Michael Cheika’s side who struck with a three-man disadvantage when Emiliano Boffelli ran in a breakaway try under the posts.
Scotland regained their composure for Sione Tuipulotu to score his second try before Cameron Redpath, Stuart Hogg and Darcy with his third of the afternoon rubbed salt into Argentine wounds.
* To recap the drama, CLICK HERE!
The scorers
For Scotland
Tries: Tuipulotu 2, Van der Merwe, Graham 3, Redpath, Hogg
Cons: Russell 6
For Argentina
Tries: De la Fuente, Alemanno, Boffelli, Ruiz
Cons: Boffelli 2, Sanchez
Pen: Boffelli
Red card: Marcos Cremer (Argentina, 22 – foul play, dangerous cleanout at ruck)
Yellow cards: Matias Alemanno (Argentina, 49 – repeated infringements), Tomas Lavanini (Argentina, 50 – repeated infringements), Jamie Ritchie (Scotland, 63 – foul play, touchline scrap), Thomas Gallo (Argentina, 63 – foul play, touchline scrap), Sione Tuipulotu (Scotland, 80 – foul play, spear tackle)
Teams
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ali Price, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Jamie Ritchie (captain), 6 Matt Fagerson, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Jonny Gray, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Fraser Brown, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 George Turner, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 Murphy Walker, 19 Glen Young, 20 Andy Christie, 21 Ben White, 22 Blair Kinghorn, 23 Cameron Redpath.
Argentina: 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Jeronimo de la Fuente, 11 Emiliano Boffelli, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Pablo Matera (captain), 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Matias Alemanno, 3 Eduardo Bello, 2 Julian Montoya, 1 Thomas Gallo.
Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Lucas Paulos, 20 Facundo Isa, 21 Lautaro Velez-Bazan, 22 Nicolas Sanchez, 23 Matías Moroni.
Referee: Karl Dickson (England)
Assistant referees: Luke Pearce (England); Ian Tempest (England)
TMO: Brett Cronan (Australia)
