Scotland urged to ‘go out on a high’ against Argentina

The Scots lost to New Zealand and Australia either side of beating Fiji

Zander Fagerson gears up for Argentina (Jane Barlow/PA) (PA Wire)

Zander Fagerson has called on Scotland to round off an Autumn Nations Series of mixed fortunes on a positive note by delivering a “ruthless” performance against Argentina at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Gregor Townsend’s side have suffered two agonising defeats at the hands of heavyweights Australia and New Zealand after leading in both games.

In between, they fought back to beat Fiji after a ragged first half.

Fagerson admitted the Scots – buoyed by their spirited effort against the All Blacks last weekend – are desperate to produce a complete 80-minute display of focus and discipline in their final outing of 2022.

“We were in the game for so long last weekend and it was just that last little bit, so there are lots of lessons to be learnt,” said the Scotland and Glasgow prop.

“All eyes are on Argentina now and we’re looking to go out on a high with a performance we can be proud of.

“We want to go out there, stick to our game-plan and give an 80-minute performance. We’ve shown glimpses but we’ve not done a full 80-minute performance in games.

“We have to go out there and be ruthless, take it to them for the whole game and come away with a win.”

Fagerson played in all three Tests of the summer series in Argentina, which the Pumas won 2-1. The 26-year-old is anticipating a tough match against Michael Cheika’s side, who have since gone on to record victories over New Zealand and England.

“They’ve had some really good results in the last three or four months since we played them in the summer,” he said. “They’ve got threats all over the park, a really dangerous backline and a big, physical forward pack.

“They had a good result against England and it’s going to be a great challenge for us. It was a close game for them against Wales last weekend (Wales won 20-13).

“Argentina have always been a really good team and with consistency of results, that’s really coming through now.

“Michael Cheika has been great for them, you can see that with the results they’re getting. They are a well-set squad, with not many changes. They know how each other play.“They play a lot of rugby together over three, four months, so they have that cohesion. You can see it in the way they play and feed off each other.”