Dan also weighed in with a drop goal and with Chris Paterson in good form with the boot it looked like Scotland would give Frank Hadden a winning start to his reign as full-time national coach.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be. Argentina kept plugging away and a penalty try 10 minutes from time - a period when Lions forward Simon Taylor was in the sin bin - proved the difference between the teams in front of a disappointing crowd at Murrayfield.
The Glasgow contingent showed up well with Andy Henderson making holes in the Argentinian defence and Craig Hamilton showing up well in the loose. Rory Lamont and brother Sean looked dangerous whenever they had ball in hand, while Scott Lawson made a positive impact in his short time on the field.
Frank Hadden said: "I was very happy with the foundations we laid today, it gives us something to build on, although I hate saying that kind of stuff because you're always so gutted at losing.
"We now need to convince the players of what they did well in the game and even the media have a role to play in that in terms of how their efforts are portrayed.
"I'll look at the tape and see what we could have done better. You get a much better feel for the game when you watch it through.
"I can picture lineouts that didn't quite go where we wanted them to go and I can picture two instances when players were running onto the ball and falling over and the ball rebounding elsewhere.
"Those were the key moments when if we had executed these phases at that time then we really could have put them away. But we didn't."
Hadden was delighted with the way his forwards stood up to the test provided by the famously physical Argentina forwards.
"The guys will be sore tomorrow, it was a very physical game and we played at a tempo which made it difficult for them.
"You could tell that by the fact they were going down like flies at the end. They were out on their feet.
"Our scrummaging was absolutely outstanding considering the strength of their scrum. Their only period of dominance was when Simon Taylor was in the sin bin. I thought we scrummaged exceptionally well."