Devin Toner: We have no excuses, Argentina were 'awesome'

Ireland second row, Devin Toner, has said that the effort of Ireland's big win over France last Sunday had very little part to play in his side's poor performance yesterday against Argentina.

The Leinster man said: "Every game is separate, we had great faith in the gameplan going into this game.

"It just didn't work out today."

The absence of Paul O'Connell, Johnny Sexton, Peter O'Mahony and Sean O'Brien has been mooted as one reason for Ireland's defeat, but Toner refused to put the blame on a lack of experience in the team on the Millennium pitch yesterday.

He said: "I'm not going to make excuses, we were always going to miss the leaders that weren't there but I am not going to use that as an excuse."

It was suggested that the lack of big game experience played against Ireland in the last 20 minutes of yesterday's defeat, but Toner was adamant that Ireland had the squad to cope with that pressure.

He said: "We do have a lot of strength in depth, we have a lot of faith in the squad. We just can't afford to let a team like that get that far in front in the first 15 minutes."

Instead, the Leinster lock highlighted Ireland's slow start as a more pivotal reason for their loss.

Toner said: "It was a pretty frantic game at the start, we were very narrow and they were able to get around us.

"We said all along they’re a very dangerous side and they proved that. They were awesome today and we weren't up to scratch.

"It’s the first World Cup I’ve been involved in and I knew progressing would be very hard.

"It was very frustrating but the best thing we can do is learn from it and move forward."