Preview: Scotland v Argentina

Scotland and Argentina will both be looking to bounce back from respective November Test defeats when they face off at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Mario Ledesma’s charges have failed to carry their impressive Rugby Championship form into their end-of-year tour, which has seen them go down 28-17 to Ireland and 28-13 to France.

November has been a mixed bag for Scotland meanwhile, as they recovered from a 21-10 defeat to Wales to beat Fiji 54-17 only to suffer a nail-biting 26-20 loss to South Africa.

Head coach Gregor Townsend will be hunting a response from his men and the 45-year-old sent out a warning that they have no ambition to stray from the attacking style of play they utilised in their last game.

“We have to play to our strengths,” Townsend was quoted as saying by The Scottish Daily Mail. “And our strengths against South Africa were players like Huw Jones, Tommy Seymour, Sean Maitland and Stuart Hogg.

“If we play conservatively, they’re not going to get on the ball.

“We have to create ways to get them on the ball. But that isn’t just passing the ball, it’s creating the counter-attack through kicking. And we have to play where the defence isn’t as strong.”

Even so, Townsend has made nine changes to his starting XV. Props Allan Dell and Simon Berghan line up alongside Fraser Brown in a new-look front-row, with Grant Gilchrist coming in at lock, Jamie Ritchie at blindside flanker and Josh Strauss at number eight in the other changes to the forward pack.

In the backline, Adam Hastings starts at fly-half, with Finn Russell moving to inside centre to accommodate him. Meanwhile, Blair Kinghorn comes in on the wing to partner Sean Maitland.

By contrast, Argentina have made just two personnel changes to their XV, with Matias Moroni replacing Matias Orlando at outside centre and Rodrigo Bruni starting alongside skipper Pablo Matera at flanker.

Players to watch:

For Scotland: As dangerous on the ball as ever, Hamish Watson caught the Springboks by surprise to score a try off a well-executed line-out move. Argentina will need to keep their wits about them in order to make sure they don’t fall into a similar trap come Saturday.

For Argentina: Guido Petti, who caused Ireland plenty of problems at the line-out while playing at openside flanker, has been moved to lock for this encounter. It will be interesting to see what, if any, effect the positional switch has on his game.

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Head-to-head: Two hugely influential full-backs will be going head-to-head in Stuart Hogg and Emiliano Boffelli. Each of them possesses a handy skillset and a solid boot off the kicking tee. Their battle may therefore be crucial in deciding the match.

Previous results:

2018: Scotland won 44-15 in Resistencia
2016: Scotland won 19-16 in Edinburgh
2014: Scotland won 41-31 in Edinburgh
2014: Scotland won 21-19 in Cordoba
2011: Argentina won 13-12 in Wellington
2010: Scotland won 13-9 in Mar del Plata
2010: Scotland won 24-16 in Tucuman
2009: Argentina won 9-6 in Edinburgh

Prediction: Scotland have a fantastic record against Los Pumas in recent Tests, and while a repeat of their 44-15 victory in June is unlikely, they will be confident heading into this game. Scotland to win by five points.

The teams:

Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Finn Russell, 11 Blair Kinghorn, 10 Adam Hastings, 9 Greg Laidlaw (c), 8 Josh Strauss, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Simon Berghan, 2 Fraser Brown, 1 Allan Dell
Replacements: 16 Stuart McInally, 17 Alex Allan, 18 Willem Nel, 19 Sam Skinner, 20 Ryan Wilson, 21 George Horne, 22 Alex Dunbar, 23 Byron McGuigan

Argentina: 15 Emiliano Boffelli, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Jeronimo De La Fuente, 11 Ramiro Moyano, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 7 Rodrigo Bruni, 6 Pablo Matera (c), 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Santiago Medrano, 2 Augustin Creevy, 1 Santiago Garcia Botta
Replacements: 16 Julian Montoya, 17 Juan Pablo Zeiss, 18 Lucio Sordoni, 19 Matias Alemanno, 20 Tomas Lezana, 21 Martin Landajo, 22 Matias Orlando, 23 Sebastián Cancelliere

Date: Saturday, November 24
Venue: Murrayfield
Kick-off: 14:30 GMT
Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Dan Jones (Wales)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)