Donal Lenihan: Irish players thriving as attention turns to mouth-watering Six Nations

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN: Argentina’s players frantically pursue Ireland’s Ryan Baird during yesterday’s clash at the Aviva Stadium. ‘An unbeaten run of eight games has catapulted Ireland into a great position,’ writes our columnist. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

With New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa all beaten by northern hemisphere opposition on Saturday, it was left to Ireland to complete a historic rout of the Rugby Championship sides when Argentina visited the Aviva Stadium yesterday. They were not found wanting.

In what was billed as the game of the November series in advance of this autumn program, France inflicted a second successive defeat over New Zealand for the first time in a decade with a performance in Paris that was even more convincing than Ireland’s win over the same opposition seven days earlier.