Scots left to lick their wounds after Pumas claw back points

SCOTLAND produced a much improved performance on day two of the IRB Sevens World Series in Adelaide yesterday, but their efforts weren't enough to prevent defeats at the hands of Argentina and Tonga.

The Scots went in to their game against Argentina battered and bruised on the back of a 31-0 defeat to New Zealand on Friday, not helped by the loss of Chris Kinloch, recalled for Glasgow Warriors' match against Leinster, and of contracted sevens internationalist Colin Shaw, who had a head injury.

Despite this Scotland looked capable of producing an upset when they drew first blood against the Pumas, a top-eight side.

Some clever phase play and good ball retention put Heriot's fly-half Rory Hutton over for a try three minutes into the first half. Mike Adamson converted to make it 7-0 for the Scots.

But the lead was short lived, Argentina levelling with a Diego Palma try and a Joaquin Todeschini conversion just a minute later.

Palma went over again early in the second half for the decisive score which Todeschini again converted to make it 14-7 in the Pumas' favour. Scotland had their chances to level the game and perhaps even win, especially when Argentina had Joaquin Tuculet sin-binned, but failed to turn pressure into points and were ultimately left to rue an opportunity missed.

Scotland head coach Stephen Gemmell said: "It was certainly an improvement on the New Zealand game in that we got ourselves into a good winning position against a top team but our lack of experience (the squad have four new caps in Adelaide] was evident towards the end when we could have made more of a couple of chances."

Scotland had little time to lick their wounds before taking to the field against an exceptionally physical Tongan side.

Gemmell's men may have feared a hiding early in the first half after Feleti Fifita and Siosiua Ma'afu crossed for the Tongans but fly-half Siaosi Iongi failed to convert either try, leaving Scotland with only a ten-point margin to claw back.

Edinburgh wing Andrew Turnbull brought his side back into the game with a try minutes later and Adamson, unlike his opposite number, had no problem in adding the conversion to put just three points between the sides.

But this was as good as it got for Scotland. Fifita went over for his second try before the break and with Iongi finally finding his range to convert, the Scots were again ten points down.

In the second half Tonga used their physicality to good effect, especially at the breakdown, and sealed the win with a Ratu Ma'afu try.

"The match against Tonga was disappointing in that it was a step down from our performance against Argentina early today but, like against New Zealand, we failed to cope with the physicality at the breakdown," Gemmell said afterwards.

The victory was not enough to take the islanders to the Cup quarter finals however, defeats to New Zealand and Argentina sending the latter two through.

Scotland were due to play Japan in the quarter-final of the consolation Bowl competition earlier today.