Historic Win in Argentina Sparks Crucial 15 Months For Scottish Rugby

Following Scotland's surprise victory over the Argentinians on Saturday, coach Andy Robinson said "There is still a long way to go for us, this is just a start", and he is right.

Despite a historic 24-17 victory in which Robinson's men became the first team to beat Argentina in Tucuman, this is only the start to a period that will be crucial to Scotland's hopes of success at next autumn's World Cup in New Zealand.

The Scottish outfit face a second test on Saturday against the Pumas, in which they will try to complete a 2-0 series win.

They then have a tough Autumn home schedule in which they will take on New Zealand, defending World Champions South Africa and the fifteen man version of recently crowned World sevens champions Samoa in consecutive weeks. 

While not expecting miracles in these fixtures Robinson will be looking for confident and dynamic performances in which they play with a fearless attitude, allowing their very talented backs to run at defences, in order to score the tries they are lacking currently.

In order to do that they will need to utilise the talent of Dan Parks. The 32 year-old fly half has been instrumental in Scotland's recent successes including all 24 of their points on Saturday.

Despite being from New South Wales he has been accepted into the hearts of the fans and is now a favourite of many.

The combination of Parks and the ever Impressive Mike Blair provides a quality half back pairing which should provide the foundation needed for Robinson to build a match winning side.

Robinson has a plethora of talented backs to choose from and providing the likes of Sean Lamont, Max Evans and Hugo Southwell among others stay fit, there is enough try scoring talent to test even the most dogged of defences.

Following their tough Autumn schedule, the Scots follow up with an equally tough Six Nations campaign.

They open up with an away trip to defending grand slam champions France, before returning to Murrayfield for tests against Wales and Ireland. 

If this wasn't tough enough they make the short trip to South-West London to face the English.

They finish up with a return to Murrayfield to face the Italians.

This is a very testing schedule but if successful will provide sufficient momentum ahead of the World Cup in New Zealand.

They will have a very tough time in New Zealand joining England and Argentina in a group also featuring Georgia and a qualifier to be confirmed from the playoff competition.

That being said, Robinson's side has already shown it has the beating of both of the bigger sides in recent years, and will be confident of the prospect of qualifying for a quarter final berth.

All of that though relies on how they handle the tests to come over the next 15 months, and it will be intriguing to see whether or not Andy Robinson can prove all his doubters and critics wrong, and guide a team of talented players to the level of success they deserve.