SCOTLAND v ARGENTINA: IF BUMS on seats are an accurate measure, then Scotland's first English coach appears to be winning the fans over as well as inching their side up the international rankings.
After successive wins over Fiji and Australia, nearly 30,000 are expected at Murrayfield today, about double the number that turned up when Argentina were last in town.
A third win and Scotland are in danger of leap-frogging the Pumas in the world order while almost certainly teasing more fans back to Murrayfield for a Six Nations programme that kicks off with a visit from France before Andy Robinson’s old employers, England, come calling.
So far this month Robinson’s team has pulled in close on 22,000 for Fiji and nearly 45,000 for Australia, and if today’s estimated gate sounds a little disappointing, it is being done no favours by a full club programme that is a major distraction even when the national side are going for their first clean sweep of autumn Tests in seven seasons. And aiming to do it in some style.
Since Robinson took over in the summer, word from the Scotland camp has suggested a near-evangelical zeal in the coach. However, it was still surprising when the collective heroics of Scotland’s one-point victory over Australia – the first in 27 years – was followed by four changes, only one of them positional.
After withstanding Australia’s siege and making more than 200 tackles in the process, out went the tackler-in-chief John Barclay, replaced by a debutant openside flanker, Alan MacDonald, while Robinson reshuffled his backs to add more pace on the wing and another ball-player in midfield.
Thom Evans, about the fastest thing available to Robinson, replaces the left-wing Simon Danielli and Ben Cairns comes in at outside-centre alongside Alex Grove to recreate the centre pairing that so pleased Robinson when he coached Scotland’s A team.
Given that Robinson insists he has picked a team specifically to meet the demands of Argentina, it suggests Scotland’s coach thinks the Pumas are ripe for plucking and he may have a point.
Santiago Phelan, the Argentina coach, seems to have spent most of the week on the back foot after the 33-16 defeat in Cardiff prompted six changes to a side that began its autumn without Juan Martin Hernandez and Felipe Contepomi and is now about a dozen players short of full squad strength.
At the Millennium Stadium, it often appeared that Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, the Argentina captain, was fighting Wales single-handed and today even the much-vaunted Puma frontrow has a new look with the Toulouse hooker, Alberto Vernet Basualdo, replacing the remarkable Mario Ledesma and Rodrigo Roncero making way for Marcos Ayerza.
Despite the absentees, the Scotland winger Sean Lamont is wary. “Some of them are classed as amateurs but they’re similar to us,” he said. “Their tenacity is unbelievable. They have got some really good players, even the squad they’ve got now.”
Murrayfield, Edinburgh Today, kick-off – 2.30pm Live on BBC Red Button
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