Seeking a response to a jarring defeat against the All Blacks seven days prior, Ireland’s victory against Argentina at the Aviva Stadium on Friday served to answer some questions while presenting a few more.
Andy Farrell described the host’s performance as “three or four games in one,” including excellent, poor, and ugly moments.
Ireland never trailed after taking the lead in the second minute, but after failing to score in the second half, they finished the game against 14 men with a thin 22-19 lead.
The game appeared to be in hand at halftime, but by the final whistle, the overwhelming sensation in Dublin was relief.
Ireland has not lost consecutive games since the first two matchups of the 2021 Six Nations, and their response to defeats has been powerful.
Whether it’s overcoming a first Test defeat to win the series in New Zealand in 2022, putting their World Cup 2023 heartache behind them with a thrilling away win in France to begin the most recent Six Nations, or looking decidedly outplayed in the first Test against South Africa this summer only to turn the tables seven days later, Farrell’s Ireland have proven masters at rising from the ashes.
However, after being defeated so convincingly by the All Blacks last week, when discipline was a major issue and the offense misfired, there has rarely been so much to fix from one game to the next.
Prior to kickoff, Farrell stated that some of his players were “lucky” to have the opportunity to atone for their first fall performance. When asked if he had received the desired answer after the nerve-racking 82 minutes, he said “in parts”.
Argentina has now lost all 11 Tests in Dublin, but has beaten France, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia this year alone. As a result, they were unlikely to let Ireland have it all their way.
While Matias Moroni’s yellow card canceled the centre’s own early try, Ireland couldn’t have asked for a better start than two tries in the first five minutes.
A third, as well as a disallowed fourth from Tadhg Beirne, came before the break, but Ireland failed to score a single point in the following 48 minutes.
Irish ill-discipline was critical in requiring such a dramatic final defensive stand to secure victory.
While Argentina failed to capitalize on Finlay Bealham and Joe McCarthy’s yellow cards, resulting in two players being sent to the sin bin, Ireland conceded 13 penalties for the second game in a row.
After years of being one of the best-drilled rugby teams in the world, the referee’s whistle is becoming a more prominent concern for this Irish team. Over the last three Test matches, they have allowed the opposition 18 successful strokes at their posts.
“It’s something that we’ve been outstanding on over the last ten years, actually,” Farrell informed the audience.
“But certainly in that amount of time you’re referring to [the previous three games], it’s not the result of players being ill-disciplined. It’s coming from the correct place, albeit that may sound silly.
“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.”
If the most obvious area for improvement is easily visible, the larger picture remains Ireland’s shift from a team for today to one constructed for tomorrow.
One of Farrell’s greatest strengths in his role has been as a selector, with his judgments – picking Jamison Gibson-Park and Mack Hansen when few others were clamoring for them to start, to name just two examples – frequently proving so foresightful that the initial broader reservations have been largely dismissed.
Having chosen a team clearly for the present rather than the future against the All Blacks, some were clamoring for major changes and an infusion of young talent.
Rather than discarding so many of the players who had propelled the side to world number one, the soon-to-be British and Irish Lions head coach rotated the Pumas sparingly, replacing Bundee Aki with Robbie Henshaw as the only alteration to the starting lineup.
There was more change on his bench, with Sam Prendergast, Craig Casey, and Ryan Baird replacing Frawley, Conor Murray, and Iain Henderson, while uncapped prop Thomas Clarkson made his debut as a replacement for Tadhg Furlong and Tom O’Toole, who were both injured.
Prendergast, 21, and Jamie Osborne, 22, stood out in their cameos as Farrell considers how to best integrate the new generation into his team moving forward.
A team that can beat Argentina even when it is not firing on all cylinders is not to be dismissed easily, and further rotation is undoubtedly on the way against Fiji next week, but the pace of any change will be debated.
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