Farrell's Ireland squeeze home against Pumas after stressful second half

Murray Kinsella Reports from the Aviva Stadium

Ireland 22

Argentina 19

A WIN IS a win but Ireland fans had to deal with more than a bit of second-half stress to see their side edge home in this one.

Andy Farrell’s men would have wanted a dominant performance in response to last weekend’s defeat to the All Blacks but didn’t get it.

Failing to score in the second half left Ireland with a nervy endgame as Argentina almost won on Irish soil for the first time ever.

Farrell’s men appeared to be in a good spot when leading 22-9 at half time but their error count rose in the second half and the Pumas improved, pulling back to within three points for the final half hour of the game. 

They threatened a comeback victory but a yellow card for replacement prop Francisco Gomez Kodela with five minutes left was costly, although Ireland had to defend in their own 22 against a final desperate Pumas attack with the clock in the red. 

Jack Crowley, Mack Hansen, and Joe McCarthy all finished tries for Ireland in the opening 40 and there were times when Farrell’s men looked clinical and crisp, but they will likely be frustrated at their error count for a second week in a row. 13 penalty concessions was too high again.

There was some grit in how they saw this win out, spending much of the final quarter camped in Pumas territory and then clinging on at the death but Ireland didn’t hit the heights they would have targeted here.

Felipe Contepomi’s Argentina always deserved respect and have earned more of it by making this a true battle, but Farrell will surely feel his men could have avoided some of the hairier moments. For the second week running, they struggled to gain real control over the game.

And yet, starting out-half Crowley had some excellent moments as he added a clever drop goal to his early try before he was replaced by debutant Sam Prendergast – who had some nice touches – with 18 minutes of the contest left.

Tighthead prop Thomas Clarkson also won his first Ireland cap, doing well in two replacement stints, while loosehead Cian Healy equalled Brian O’Driscoll’s all-time record of 133 with his 15-minute cameo off the bench.

Those are all reasons to celebrate and ultimately, Ireland had enough to win this autumn international but they’ll feel there is plenty more to come against Fiji next Saturday, then Joe Schmidt’s Australia a week later.

The frenetic opening two minutes featured kick blockdowns by Josh van der Flier and captain Caelan Doris, a slick Rónan Kelleher offload, a loose one from Doris to Crowley, a Pumas counter, a Garry Ringrose pass to ground, another Pumas counter from Bautista Delguy, a blocked offload from James Lowe and what looked like a try for Matías Moroni as the ball bobbled free.

But TMO Richard Kelly brought play all the way back to when Doris had offloaded to Crowley, showing referee Paul Williams that Moroni had made head-on-head contact with Crowley. It was a yellow card, with Kelly doing an off-field review to decide it should remain yellow.

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With Moroni in the bin, Ireland prospered. They kicked straight into the left corner and Kelleher looped around the lineout for a potent carry before Doris and Andrew Porter powered at the Pumas, then Crowley dummied and darted over to score through Lucio Cinti’s tackle.

Crowley converted and Ireland scored straight off the restart. Henshaw made big gains up the right initially, then Ringrose smashed through the Argentina defence after Doris’ tip on pass went to ground. Ringrose was stopped short but Gibson-Park swung the ball wide left to Beirne, who popped inside for Mack Hansen to score.

The visitors did pull three points back before Moroni returned, out-half Tomás Albornoz slotting a penalty to punish Henshaw for creeping offside.

Ireland briefly thought they had their third try in the 16th minute as Beirne surged over off a slick Henshaw pass but the TMO review showed that the Irish flanker had knocked on rather than finishing.

A minute later, tighthead Finlay Bealham was in the sin bin for a croc roll on opposite number Joel Sclavi. Bealham’s effort was reviewed off-pitch but Kelly decided it too should remain yellow because it didn’t carry a high degree of danger.

Albornoz kicked the Pumas back to 12-6 from that penalty but Ireland opened the gap again soon after when Crowley calmly knocked over a smart 35-metre drop goal from in front of the posts just after the Irish lineout had failed to fire from close range.

The tit-for-tat continued with another three from Albornoz’s boot after Kelleher obstructed a tackler in front of McCarthy, but Ireland managed to grab their third try in the 33rd minute.

The pressure began with fullback Hugo Keenan claiming Crowley’s excellent hanging restart. Ireland milked a penalty from the Pumas and though their maul from five metres out was stopped dead and James Ryan was turned over in the carry, they struck gold second time around.

Henshaw looked set to carry straight off a lovely lineout won at the tail but flicked a late inside pass to Lowe, who burst through and was stopped only metres out. Gibson-Park calmly popped short to the powerful McCarthy on his left and there was no stopping the big lock.

Ireland held that 22-9 lead into the break despite a sustained period of Pumas pressure in the Irish 22, with van der Flier’s breakdown poach initially lifting it before three quick penalty concessions meant Ireland had to fight to hold their line. They did so, turning Argentina over under their posts for a rousing end to the half.

Yet it was the Pumas who came out of the blocks as the game restarted, first earning a lineout in the Irish 22 that they botched before delivering a stunning solo try.

It was Toulouse fullback Juan Cruz Mallía who scorched through their defence, beating Ringrose’s tackle attempt on his inside shoulder, skipping away from Doris’ tap tackle attempt, then beating the covering Hansen all ends up with a lethal sidestep.

It was a try that deserved the full seven points and Albornoz obliged to bring his team back to within six points at 22-16.

Four minutes later, Ireland were down to 14 men as McCarthy went to the bin and Williams, having warned them late in the first half, lost patience. Albornoz made it a three-point game off the tee.

Ireland’s growing sloppiness was inviting the Pumas back in, Crowley kicking out on the full, Hansen passing straight into touch, Crowley tackling a man in the air, but Albornoz was wide with his next shot at goal, a drop kick that sailed to the left.

The Irish sloppiness continued with an overthrown lineout but they managed to see out the rest of McCarthy’s sin-bin period down in Argentina territory. 

Restored to 15 players and looking for a big final-quarter push, Farrell sent on Prendergast for Crowley, Jamie Osborne for Henshaw, Ryan Baird for Ryan, and Rob Herring for Kelleher.

Ireland were looking for some inspiration and it was Clarkson who provided it in defence as he raced up to force an error from the Pumas with 15 minutes left. And having been penalised at scrum time only a few minutes before, Ireland won a scrum penalty back to kick down into Pumas territory.

Their attack from the ensuing lineout was promising as Osborne and Doris carried powerfully, but Lowe couldn’t hold onto a lovely delayed pass from Prendergast and the opportunity was lost.

But a big error from debutant back Justo Piccardo, offside ahead of the kicker, gave Ireland another gilt-edged chance with a penalty eight metres out. They tapped it and set up a maul around McCarthy. But they were repelled again, Argentina defending brilliantly and eventually forcing a counter-ruck turnover after Prendergast darted. 

Ireland had to start again and there was more promise as Osborne broke through in midfield but Argentina were quick to the breakdown and replacement Santiago Carreras delivered a crucial turnover.

Kodela’s yellow card appeared to be the final deciding factor but Ireland once again wasted a visit into the Pumas 22 and then Delguy broke out from the halfway line into the Irish 22 with the clock in the red.

Camped 10 metres out from the Irish line, the Argentinians had a chance to steal a historic win but they knocked on at the back of the ruck and Ireland survived.

Ireland scorers:

Tries: Jack Crowley, Mack Hansen, Joe McCarthy

Conversions: Jack Crowley [2 from 3]

Drop goal: Jack Crowley

Argentina scorers:

Tries: Juan Cruz Mallía

Conversions: Tomás Albornoz [1 from 1]

Penalties: Tomás Albornoz [4 from 4]

IRELAND: Hugo Keenan; Mack Hansen, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw (Jamie Osborne ’62), James Lowe; Jack Crowley (Sam Prendergast ’62), Jamison Gibson-Park (Craig Casey ’74); Andrew Porter (Cian Healy ‘), Rónan Kelleher (Rob Herring ’63), Finlay Bealham (yellow card ’17) (Thomas Clarkson ’53); Joe McCarthy (yellow card ’49, James Ryan (Ryan Baird ’62 ((Peter O’Mahony ’65)); Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier (Thomas Clarkson ’24 to ’29), Caelan Doris (captain).

ARGENTINA: Juan Cruz Mallia; Rodrigo Isgro (Santiago Carreras ’58), Lucio Cinti  (Justo Piccardo ’59), Matías Moroni (yellow card ’3), Bautista Delguy; Tomas Albornoz, Gonzalo Bertranou (Gonzalo Garcia ’46); Thomas Gallo (Ignacio Calles ’22 to ’35, permanent ’72), Julian Montoya (captain) (Ignacio Ruiz ’23 to ’33, permanent ’62), Joel Sclavi (Francisco Gomez Kodela ’52 (yellow card ’75); Guido Petti (Franco Molina ’52), Pedro Rubiolo; Pablo Matera (Santiago Grondona ’62), Juan Martin Gonzalez, Joaquin Oviedo.

Referee: Paul Williams [New Zealand].