Trust in each other is what inspired Scotland to see Saturday’s tight contest against Argentina through to a much needed win, said flanker Hamish Watson.
The Edinburgh open side believes Scotland’s resilience in coming from behind twice to close out the game with Greig Laidlaw’s last-kick penalty showed the growing maturity of the team in pressure situations.
“I think it shows a lot about the character in the squad,” said Watson, making only his second start. “Vern’s pretty big on that – everyone trusting each other.
“We all believed we could get the result today, even if we kept dropping behind.”
When Argentina went out to a 13-6 lead after half-time with ten points in quick order, the discussion behind the posts showed no panic, he added.
“That was in the 50th minute, wasn’t it? So we still had 30 minutes, and we’d been in control for most of the game and had most of the territory,” he continued.
“There were a few harsh words said that our D needed to step up, get a bit lower in the tackle and slow their ball down a bit, but not too harsh.
“It was only a seven-point lead. It wasn’t too drastic. We knew if we stuck together we could pull through.”
Even better was the response, Sean Maitland’s try just four minutes after the Pumas’ counter by Matias Orlando.
“We had a good restart and put them straight back under the cosh,” continued Watson. “So I think we reacted really well, as well as you can react, because then we pinned them down in their half and got a try back pretty quick, which is pretty important against Argentina.
“You can’t let them get their tails up for too long, so the fact that we reacted very quickly helped us massively in the end.”
And when kit came to the crunch the team knew they could rely on their skipper, agreed Watson.
“In those closing minutes you know this is it,” he said.”If you don’t put something together, if you don’t clear those rucks, then you’re going to end up drawing or maybe losing. We all bought into that.
“Greig’s obviously one of the best 9s in the world. He’s very calm and you saw that towards the end with that last kick.
“It’s why he gets all these clubs after him, because he is one of the best at game management, organising the forwards, and in experience now internationally and at club level. He’s up there with the top guys.”