SO, that’s what they call winning ugly, is it? I must be old school. I still call it a win. And I’m happy to take Saturday’s result against Argentina, however it came about.

It wasn’t braw, it wasn’t the spectacle the game against Australia had been, it wasn’t even a terribly good performance from the Scots. But it was a win, and an important one at that given the implications it could have ahead of the draw for the World Cup next year.

Many of the things Scotland were good at against the Aussies appeared to have been left in the changing room on Saturday. It looked more like a first run-out of the season than the second Test in a week. We made a lot of handling errors, too many. Better opponents would have punished us. Not that the Pumas were much better.

They dropped passes and knocked on so often you began to wonder if it was just a ploy to have yet another scrum, because they were beating us up front for most of the match. Our scrum creaked a few times, and Zander Fagerson looked like he was toiling. Certainly the referee did, penalising him once or twice. Fagerson is only 20 and still learning, but he could face more of the same against Georgia.

I thought the referee, New Zealander Ben O’Keeffe, caused problems of his own. There was nothing wrong with the first scrum, but he then decided to blow up rather than telling Argentina to play the ball they’d won. People have better things to watch having paid fifty quid for a ticket than a referee being so pedantic and slowing the game down to a dead stop, because every scrum has to be perfect.

Here’s some news: scrums are not perfect and never have been. Just get on with it.

And that is something Scotland should be doing. As I wrote last week, we hold and delay too often. If Greig Laidlaw is lifting his head to see what is on, then we are slowing the game down. That only suits the opposition, especially a team like the Pumas.

We have always had a reputation of being scavengers, living off scraps. But I believe we’ve always been on our game when it is fragmented and the opposition don’t have time to think. Keep moving, keep the other team moving, spread the game.

Rather like the Australia game, I thought Scotland’s back row excelled, Magnus Bradbury having a good debut alongside John Barclay and Hamish Watson, who for me, swung the balance of the game in the closing minutes with a great tackle and stripping of the ball that gave Scotland possession and meant we thought more about winning than hanging on for a draw.

Sean Maitland is a great reader of the game, and always appears to be in the right place. He certainly was for the try, right on the shoulder of Huw Jones who confirmed again what a great acquisition he’ll be this season. The break he made was excellent; pacey, direct, taking out a couple of tacklers as well, so proving a basic point of mine; you don’t have to be big if you are aiming for holes in defence and trying to hit the gaps. You only need to be physically big when you are hitting defenders, and ultimately, dead ends.

And at the very end, it came down to the captain playing his part with the boot. Greig Laidlaw had been denied by the width of the post minutes earlier, but kept his focus and technique to land the winning points.

So, more positives this week for Vern Cotter, but perhaps, one or two things that I feel need addressing.

He is the poster boy of Scottish rugby currently, but Stuart Hogg needs to get a bit smarter. He is a fantastic open runner, excellent in a tight squeeze as well. But I think his decision making could be better.

People talk about pace, vision, strength, defence. But decision making is just as key and I think Stuart believes he must try and run, and entertain, every time he takes possession. That isn’t the case.

Sometimes, when the ball is kicked downfield to you, you just need to lump it straight back to the other team if there is nothing on. Don’t try and manufacture something because you think you must and then find yourself knocked over in the backfield.

As a team, there is nothing worse than having to run 30 metres back the way when you should have been 50 metres in the opposite direction.

It will be interesting to see how Vern Cotter views the Georgia match at Rugby Park next weekend; will it be more of the same personnel or a change of faces? The Georgians are pretty limited, but could make life hard for any team thinking they only need to turn up to win.

Saturday proved, with the result Italy had against South Africa, and the performance Japan stuck in against the Welsh, that you need to be on your ‘A game’ for every Test, regardless of whether it is your best starting XV, or, your back-up players.

Scotland should finish on a high against Georgia. And again, I’ll take a win over playing like a 70s Barbarians team any day of the week.