Glasgow Warriors ace urges national side to snare Argentinian Pumas at Murrayfield

Nov 26 2009 By Matthew Leslie

Let's go finish the job off is Glasgow Warriors ace Alastair Kellock's message to his Scotland team-mates ahead of Saturday's clash against Argentina.

The Scots meet the Pumas at Murrayfield on the back of a fantastic 9-8 win over Australia - their first win over the Wallabies for 27 years.

Kellock played an heroic role last Saturday when he took over the Scotland captaincy after fellow Warrior Chris Cusiter went off injured after denying Australia a certain try.

Great though the victory was, in order to demonstrate that Scotland are making progress, Kellock insists the winning habit must be maintained.

He said: "Beating Australia was a great result - no doubt about that.

"But we want to make it three out of three wins by beating Argentina on Saturday because winning is a great habit to acquire and that's what we're aiming for.

"Take nothing away from this result because this is huge for us but if we want to compete with the best, we need to maintain a winning mentality as that what the great teams do."

Kellock will be joined by Glasgow team mates Chris Cusiter, pictured, Moray Low, Thom Evans and Johnnie Beattie in the starting line-up against the Argies. Dougie Hall and Ritchie Vernon will begin on the bench.

And Kellock revealed that being given the captain's role last week was something he had only found out at the time.

He added: "Taking the captaincy wasn't pre-arranged.

"It came out of the blue as Andy just sent Rory (Lawson) on with the message that I was in charge.

"Basically I just got on with it as midway through the first half you're not going to have much time to dwell on it.

'Being Glasgow's captain just meant I could slip back into a role which I'm used to on a weekly basis but it was a massive honour to lead my country.

"Put it this way, it was like being at Firhill but with 44,000 people roaring you on to victory.

"Naturally we had to give them something to shout about and we both started to believe that beating Australia was really on around midway through the second half as the intensity of our play and their support went up a level.

"We didn't attack as well as we wanted to and that is something which we will be working on for the Argentina game but with the effort we put into our defence, we deserved to win.

"After all, if you make your tackles then the opposition can't score.

Scotland made over 200 tackles against the Wallabies who had virtually set up camp in the Scots' half.

Some Aussie pundits have moaned about their team being mugged and how they should've won the game but as big Al says, it's about taking your chances when they come and stopping the opposition.

He continued: "I suppose it was like watching the Italian football team at times with their 'hit them on the break' style but it works for Italy in that sport and it worked for us against Australia - although we don't want to be defending too much in matches to come.

"It was pretty hairy at times - they were over our try-line on four occasions but only managed a successful score in the last move of the game.

"With regard to Rocky Elsom's 'try that wasn't', he didn't ground the ball - not unless you want to consider grounding the ball on my leg as a try because I was underneath him.

"However, the physical effort that everyone put in was torture but that's what you've got to put yourself through in order to beat a quality side like Australia.

"Once you put on that jersey, no matter who you're playing, you have to lay your body on the line."

. FOR more analysis on Scotland's victory, log onto our website on: http://blogs.theglaswegian.co.uk/talkingrugby/