Ireland 22; Argentina 19
As we prepare for the “easy” Autumn series match against Fiji this weekend, the management team must be scratching their heads to see why Ireland can’t produce the sort of rugby that brought them to the No. 1 position over the past few years.
For the first-half it looked as if we had found out old rhythm as we led by 22 to 9 with three first tries in that 40 minutes. That was the good part of the story.
The bad was we were as flat as pancakes for the second 40 minutes, allowing Argentina to score 10 points without reply as we lost our way completely with neither backs nor forwards showing anything like the initiative that is required against the teak-tough Pumas. Yes, that certainly was the bad chapter in the story.
Seldom has ugly seemed so beautiful as despite being put under constant pressure in the past 10 minutes as the visitors came in search of a prized victory at the Aviva Stadium, we eked out a win, albeit ugly but a victory none the less.
Coming on the heels of the previous week’s inept loss to the All Blacks, Friday night’s win was warmly embraced both by players and coaches, even if the fans leaving Lansdowne Road were baffled at what has gone wrong with Andy Farrell’s reign?
Yes, he is going on sabbatical to take over the Lions after next week’s game against Australia and yes, it is probably only to be expected that the players heads are not as focused as if he would be the Head Coach for the upcoming Six Nations championship.
Farrell was relieved his side didn’t suffer back to back defeats and praised the players’ ability to hold on for a tense win, but was far from happy with the overall “desperate” discipline shown by the squad.
Ireland looked to be coasting at half time with three tries in the bag and playing on the front foot.
Reflecting on how things went downhill in the second half, the England-born manager said: "It was three or four games in one, wasn’t it really? Obviously the overriding feeling is we’re delighted to get the win. There were a few things we needed to learn from last week, and some things that we didn’t address on the field. But we said last week we had a chance of winning ugly. We did that this week, that’s a plus.
“We showed really good intent in how we started the game. We were direct, we were piling into them, we were hard to handle playing off quick ball. But we know the kind of side they are, they’ve improved out of sight. And the pressure they put on us, and that we put ourselves, obviously brought them back into the game and to cut a long story short, we held our nerve towards the end and just about got there,” he declared.
That win came despite giving up 13 penalties or over twice as many as the Pumas.
Similar to the concessions against the All Blacks the previous week which Damian McKenzie capitalized on with unerring accuracy, this time around it was Tomas Albornoz whose accuracy from placed balls ensured Argentina could stay alive in the contest and threaten to snatch a late draw or win, having reduced our 13-point interval lead to a precarious three-point advantage.
While we are still good at defending attempts to breach out try line, we have now conceded 54 points through penalties over our last three international tests.
Recognizing the problem, the Head Coach stated: “It’s something that we’ve been outstanding on over the last 10 years actually. But certainly in that amount of time you’re saying there, it’s not done out of players going out there to be ill-disciplined.
“It’s coming from the right place, if that may sound stupid. All they’re trying to do is do the right thing by their team. They just need to be a little more patient individually and trust the team and what they’re about.
“We looked lethargic and you could say that's because of penalties given or losing the collision or whatever that may have been, but in general I think that the quality of opposition has been very strong in these first two games and will get better as we go through."
Joe McCarthy, the MVP on the night, referring to the breakdown in discipline said: “We will review it proper hard, the coaches will be on our backs big time. We will have a big chat about it, sit down and try to improve next week, then we have two more games to try and get it right."
