Argentina pack will target ‘simple farmer from Wexford’ Tadhg Furlong

By Brendan O’Brien

It feels bizarre, given their history, to put it out there that Argentina’s scrum is a potential area of weakness and rich source of profit for Ireland at the Aviva Stadium today.

Sacrilegious even.

But the stats don’t lie. And neither does the teamsheet.

The Pumas won just 79% of the ball on their own put-in at scrum time during this year’s Rugby Championship.

An awful number for any side, it must be the ultimate embarrassment for a country that prides itself on their famed bajada setpiece.

The axis of Argentina’s game has shifted dramatically from forward power to backline brilliance but their efforts in defeat away to New Zealand, in particular, a few short months ago demonstrated again the unaltered reality in rugby that flair with force is little use.

Three tries scored, setpiece in bits and a 22-point defeat.

Added to all that is the absence of Nahuel Tatez Chaparro, Ramiro Herrera and Juan Figallo from their ranks today. Chaparro started five of their six Rugby Championship games at loosehead. The other pair started a pair of games each at tighthead.

It heaps an amount of pressure on the shoulders of Santiago Medrano, who came off the bench three times in the southern hemisphere competition, and Santiago Garcia Botta, who started just once in three appearances. The veteran Agustin Creevy starts at hooker.

Opposing them will be a top-notch, first-choice Irish front row containing Tadhg Furlong on one side, Cian Healy on the other and a third British and Irish Lion in the shape of captain Rory Best holding down the middle.

“They’ll come in and they’ll have no fear because they’re young, inexperienced and they just don’t have, like I said in some of the earlier answers, the same baggage of maybe being pushed back in a scrum,” said Best.

“There’s no doubt we’ve one of the best tightheads in the world in Tadhg (Furlong) but with that comes a little bit of pressure because Garcia Botta is going to want to come to go at it, go and make a name for himself and take this young, simple farmer from Wexford down a peg or two.”

Best made the additional point that Ireland found themselves leaning on the callow Andrew Porter – total number of caps at the time: three - when Furlong picked up an injury just four minutes into the Six Nations game last season.

“To underestimate these guys just because of caps beside their name or because you haven’t heard that much about them would be foolish,” said the Ireland skipper.

“We will try to make it as difficult as we can for them.”

Ireland look well equipped to do just that. Joe Schmidt was in the freakish position of having every forward fit and available for duty this week. This is as good as it theoretically gets for the Ireland pack and Sean O’Brien’s return is central to that.

“Seanie brings a bit of edge,” said Best. “He’s rough and he’s ready and, for years, what you see is what you get and who knows what way his body is because he shows you nothing. That’s the way he is on the pitch. You know he won’t take a backward step.

All of which will be music to Kieran Marmion’s ears.

With Conor Murray unavailable, this is a big and rare opportunity for the Connacht scrum-half to take centre stage in a green shirt.

His one start for his country in a major fixture prior to this was at home to England two seasons ago.

Ensuring a smooth ride for Marmion will be pivotal for the pack.

“Massively. The cleaner the ball you can give him (the better). Kieran Marmion is the type of scrum-half that, no matter the ball you give him, he will make something of it because he is tenacious, he’s nuggety and he isn’t afraid to take people on.”