AUSTRALIAN MICHAEL Cheika’s tenure as Argentina coach got off to a perfect start on Saturday as the Pumas beat Scotland 26-18 in San Salvador de Jujuy, their first home match in almost three years.

Tries from Jeronimo de la Fuente and replacement Santiago Carreras in a dominant first half set the Pumas on their way.

But after Mark Bennett and Rory Hutchinson tries brought the tourists level, scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou won it with an opportunistic effort with a quarter of the match left.

Cheika knew he would have his work cut out with a team that had lost eight of their last nine internationals, saying in midweek: “We know that on Saturday we will not be perfect.”

But it was a Scotland side that had not lost to the Pumas since 2011, winning on five of their previous six visits to Argentina, who put in a poor first-half showing.

After opposing fly-halves Nicolas Sanchez and Blair Kinghorn kicked a pair of penalties each, the hosts started to take control as Scotland looked hopelessly disjointed.

Center De la Fuente burrowed over from close range on the half-hour mark despite scrum-half Ali Price’s best efforts to hold him up over the line.

Winger Emiliano Boffelli, who took over kicking duties after Sanchez was forced off injured after 20 minutes and had already missed a penalty, dragged his conversion attempt well wide.

But Argentina were over the whitewash again just three minutes later.

Full-back Juan Cruz Mallia made ground to bring Argentina close to the try line and one phase later Carreras dived over, with Boffelli this time kicking the extras.

Scotland just about held out for the rest of the half to trail 18-6 at the break.

It was a different story after the restart as Scotland came storming back.

Outside center Bennett hit a perfect line to meet Kinghorn’s long, flat pass and burst through a gap to score on 57 minutes.

Argentina were reeling and Scotland’s forwards bundled up towards the tryline before Kinghorn took on Bertranou and slipped a reverse pass for Rory Hutchinson to dive over.

Kinghorn then kicked the extras to level the scores.

Parity did not last long as Boffelli claimed the ball direct from the kick-off and Argentina rumbled down the touchline before Bertranou picked the ball up from the back of the ruck and dotted it down on the blindside.

Boffelli, though, missed for the thrid time out of four kicks at goal.

But 10 minutes from time he landed a penalty to stretch the Pumas’ lead out to two scores.

That came shortly after Scotland thought they had scored in the corner, only to be denied by a forward pass.

Scotland were unable to exert any real pressure and fell to defeat in the first of this three-match series.

– © AFP 2022