Penalty try seals Argentine win
Argentina came from behind to record a 23-19 win over Scotland in a bruising encounter at Murrayfield in Edinburgh on Saturday. The decisive score was a penalty try in the 70th minute, after Scotland had been reduced to 14 men.
It was cold in Murrayfield -- steam on the breath cold. But there was nothing cold about the last quarter of an hour of this dramatic match as drama built on drama until the final whistle rang out around a sparsely populated Murrayfield.
In those last tense minutes the Pumas were more collected, the Scots prone enough to error to be suicidal. The penalty count at half-time was 6-5 against them, but in the second half they conceded eight penalties and a penalty try to the Pumas' three penalties. That was destructive.
The scrummaging in much of the match did nothing for the worth of the match as entertainment. The Scots put the ball into 12 scrums. There were ten resets, four free kicks and a penalty in those 12 scrums. Things improved when loosehead Gavin Kerr was replaced.
At the start the match promised to be exciting and both teams tried to play wide and play quickly from penalties and free kicks -- the Scots more than the Pumas.
The Scottish try, the only try of the half, was a brilliant affair.
Argentina kicked downfield and strong Sean Lamont ran it back with a weave and jink. He rushed past four Pumas until Juan Fernandez Lobbe brought him down. On the Scots went with Allister Hogg prominent. They went right and then with exquisite precision Dan Parks lobbed a kick over leaping Martin Schusterman and dived on the ball in the Puma in-goal for the try which gave the Scots the lead.
Before that the Pumas looked certain to score when Juan Martin chased and gathered a grubber. An arm's length from the Scottish line he popped the ball back but the Scots intercepted and survived.
Federico Todeschini opened the scoring when Hogg was penalised but Parks equalised when he stroked a drop over. Then came the try which Chris Paterson converted and followed with a penalty goal.
When Marcus Di Rollo, who had a splendid match, was penalised at a tackle. Todeschini goaled to make the half-time score 13-6.
Simon Taylor had an elegant run and Jason White was tackled out at the corner, but Paterson made it 16-6, and then the shape of the game started to change.
The Pumas went left with long, accurate passes and Francisco Leonelli dived over in Paterson's tackle to score in the corner. The television match official was satisfied that it was a try and Todeschini then converted from the touch-line. That made it 16-13 and it became a match of mounting drama.
First the Scots were penalised but the touch judge stuck his flag out and pointed out an indiscretion by Mario Ledesma. It then became a penalty to Scotland, which Paterson goaled. Todeschini made it 19-16 and there were many changes.
Then disaster struck Scotland, Simon Taylor was sent to the sin-bin, and the Pumas made the penalty into a five metre line-out.
For a long, long, agonisingly tense time, they stayed down in that corner on their left. Five times they made penalties into scrums against the shortened Scottish pack.
Then when the replacement hooker Scott Lawson pushed a foot through to kick the ball out of the scrum, the referee ran over to the posts and awarded a penalty try, much to Scottish consternation -- both on the field and in the stands. Todeschini converted and that meant at 23-19 Scotland needed a try in the remaining eight minutes to win.
How they attacked! They passed from touch-line to touch-line. The Pumas defended. They went down with cramp and got up on stiff legs to defend again. The Scots tried to bash round the edges but the Pumas went in low on them.
Taylor came back.
A forward pass became an Argentina scrum, which the Scots destroyed. The Pumas kicked it out. The Scots made the line-out into a maul which the Pumas collapsed. The Scots, needing a try, formed a line-out five metres from the Puma line. The Pumas drove the catcher back but the determined Scots regrouped and were actually over in the corner with a minute left to play. But the referee, in a perfect position, saw that the ball was held up.
Five metre scrum and the nerves were taut to screaming.
The Scots won the scrum but did not take the Argentines on and released the ball to their backs where the obvious recipient was Sean Lamont coming in off the left wing. But the ball bobbed astray and the Argentineans had a scrum. They dug in and got the ball back to Agustín Pichot who kicked it out, and the final whistle went.
Man of the Match: Argentina No.8 Juan Fernandez Lobbe was all things effective and energetic, strong and determined. Felipe Contepomi, playing inside centre this week, was always a handful -- such a clever player. But our man-of-the-match is Sean Lamont whose performance on the left wing was splendid -- always adventurous, always able to beat at least one opponent.
Moment of the Match: The Scottish try which started with a brilliant run by Sean Lamont and then that delicate kick by Dan Parks.
Villain of the Match: Mario Ledesma was silly but not as silly as Simon Taylor whose absence in the sin bin cost his team so dearly.
The scorers:
For Scotland:
Try: Parks
Con: Paterson
Pens: Paterson 3
DG: Parks
For Argentina:
Tries: Leonelli, Penalty try
Cons: Todeschini 2
Pens: Todeschini 3
Yellow card: Simon Taylor (Scotland, 65)
The teams:
Scotland: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Rory Lamont, 13 Marcus Di Rollo, 12 Andy Henderson, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Mike Blair, 8 Simon Taylor, 7 Allister Hogg, 6 Jason White (captain), 5 Scott Murray, 4 Craig Hamilton, 3 Bruce Douglas, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Gavin Kerr.
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Craig Smith, 18 Allan Jacobsen, 19 Alastair Kellock, 20 Kelly Brown, 21 Chris Cusiter, 22 Hugo Southwell
Argentina: 15 Juan Martin Hernandez, 14 Federico Martin Aramburu, 13 Manuel Contepomi, 12 Felipe Contepomi, 11 Francisco Leonelli, 10 Federico Todeschini, 9 Agustin Pichot (captain), 8 Juan Fernandez Lobbe, 7 Martin Schusterman, 6 Martin Alberto Durand, 5 Pablo Bouza, 4 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 3 Omar Hasan, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements: 16 Martin Scelzo, 17 Eusebio Guinazu, 18 Manuel Carizza, 19 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 20 Nicolas Fernandez-Miranda, 21 Lucas Borges, 22 Bernardo Mario Stortoni
Referee: Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand)
Touch judges: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales), Eric Darrière (France)
Television match official: Carlo Damasco (Italy)
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