Argentinian international rugby was in turmoil when Scotland arrived to meet their national team last summer.

Immediately before their arrival, in the wake of hefty defeats in both matches of a two Test series with Wales, their coach Daniel Hourcade had announced that he would be resigning from his post after the Scotland match.

During his five year reign Hourcade had overseen a campaign which took them to a deserved placed in the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup, the nucleus of his squad having been players he had developed in their domestic game. However, their inability to build on that World Cup performance, winning just two matches of the dozen played in 2017 and just one of the Rugby Championship matches they had played against New Zealand, South Africa and Australia in 2016 and ’17, had seen pressure build. Clamour was consequently growing for the reins to be handed to former Pumas captain Mario Ledesma who had been doing fine work with the Jaguares side which represents Argentina in Super Rugby and, for all that they have won only another two matches since that loss to Scotland, there has been a significant improvement in their performances.While, then, many of the faces will be familiar to the Scots who took part in that six try romp in Resistencia, they can anticipate to encounter a very different collective unit.

“We began the year with Mario (Ledesma) and had a great season with the Jaguares and then we lost all three games to European nations (Wales, Wales, Scotland). We had three bad games and that one against Scotland was really bad, we don’t want to repeat,” says Sebastian Cancelliere, the winger who was part of that beaten side and is in the current tour party.

“It’s been a year of changes but besides the losses to Ireland and France we know we are in the correct path. These games we are using to improve our systems but the spirit is good. We know it’s going to be difficult and we know we are playing against great nations. Scotland has improved a lot this year and had a great Six Nations (and) we know that this type of rugby is not Super Rugby but we trust in our system and if we do the things we say and we practise we are going to thrive.”

Victories over both Australia and, most notably, the Springboks in the course of this year’s Rugby Championship provided the most obvious evidence that they are on course to be competitive at a World Cup once again next year, while they can also take a great deal from the way they performed when losing only narrowly to an Ireland side that went on, a fortnight later, to over-power the world number one All Blacks.

There is, however, sufficient knowhow within both the management and among the senior players in the Puma ranks, to realise that there is only so much consolation they can take from narrow losses such as that in Dublin and last weekend’s when France proved too strong for them in the closing stages and an understanding of what is required has consequently been gained by even those like Cancelliere, who have joined the squad since the last World Cup.

“We were close, we pushed them to the limit but we lost in the last 20 minutes and I think that great teams make the difference in that last 20 minutes so we have to improve,” he said of those meetings with Ireland and France. “We played an excellent game for 60 minutes but that is not enough at this level.”