Nothing short of a disaster for Scotland, but a magnificent comeback by Argentina. The hosts were 21-0 up and cruising in the second half when a loose Finn Russell pass was seized on by opponents who had been poor until that point.<\/p>\n
Blair Kinghorn was soon in the sin\u2011bin and a sensational flurry of five Argentina tries in the final 24 minutes sealed Scotland\u2019s fate. It was all orchestrated in stunning fashion by Santi Carreras of Bath, one of six replacements who appeared together after half-time.<\/p>\n
Disappointment generated by inaccuracy and uncertainty is a familiar refrain for home fans but this, a record comeback for Argentina in Test rugby, was far more painful than most.<\/p>\n
The talent of Scotland\u2019s fly-half, Russell, had terrorised Argentina in a collectively dominant first half. A swivel of the hips or a dart of the eyes had carved the Pumas open but, like it or not, he will be held responsible for this collapse after an extravagant attempted pass, soon after half-time, led to a profound shift.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such a huge momentum swing,\u201d Gregor Townsend, Scotland\u2019s head coach, said of the Russell error that sparked a calamity. \u201cSometimes you make an error and nothing happens \u2026 But for it to flip the field and us to lose a yellow card, it was obviously very costly. That\u2019s down to the actions of others as well, and very good play by Argentina.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felipe Contepomi, the Argentina head coach, conceded they were \u201cimprecise\u201d before the break, but insisted he was always confident of a contest, saying it was akin to \u201cpounding a rock\u201d.<\/p>\n
Contepomi said: \u201cI wasn\u2019t angry at half\u2011time. We knew the challenge we were facing and we said this was going to go for 80 minutes. We felt when we had the ball with long sequences we could hurt them. We started playing, suddenly the momentum shifted and the guys accelerated.\u201d<\/p>\n
It had all been going so well for Scotland. After Darcy Graham marked his 50th cap pre-match, Russell skilfully created the first try, popping a short pass to the No 8 Jack Dempsey, who ran a perfect line after Juan Cruz Mall\u00eda had been sent to the sin-bin.<\/p>\n
The visitors were cracked open again through Russell\u2019s creativity, this time after a garryowen collected by Graham. Ewan Ashman smashed through a couple of defenders and gave Russell a simple conversion.<\/p>\n
When Argentina fouled up an attacking lineout Contepomi held his head in his hands. Even when Rory Darge was penalised for a dangerous clear-out, they missed touch with the clearing kick, and Ashman thundered over again. Russell converted and it was 21-0 after 44 minutes. All going well.<\/p>\n
Contepomi mixed it up two minutes later, unloading six replacements in one hit. Then came that booming, loose pass from Russell with Scotland pushing for the score that would have buried their visitors.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Finn Russell\u2019s mistake appeared to spark Argentina\u2019s comeback. Photograph: David Rogers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Agust\u00edn Moyano scorched down the right, kicked inside for Mateo Carreras and Kinghorn was shown a yellow card for infringing at the ensuing ruck. The Argentina captain, Juli\u00e1n Montoya, took a scrum and was vindicated when he forced himself over the line. Argentina smelt blood.<\/p>\n Rodrigo Isgr\u00f3 soon powered over, then Pedro Rubiolo, with 10 minutes remaining, and from 21-0 down the Pumas had pulled it back to a five\u2011point game at 24-19. They kept coming. Pablo Matera scored the try that took Argentina ahead, barging over from close range. Fittingly it was Santi Carreras, the architect of the comeback, who converted the decisive try after a television match official check.<\/p>\n A turnover in the Scotland 22 then allowed Justo Piccardo, another replacement, to complete Scotland\u2019s misery. Murrayfield was stunned, and Argentina could barely believe it either.<\/p>\n \u201cAs players we need to take a good hard look at ourselves,\u201d the Scotland captain, Sione Tuipulotu, said. \u201cIf we had scored one more try the floodgates could have opened \u2026 We deserve to cop it a bit as a playing group. That performance just was not good enough and we have to own that.\u201d<\/p>\n