Lansdowne battle moves off pitch and ends in war of words
But the Irish hero was Ronan O’Gara, who dropped a goal 67 seconds from the end of a fractious encounter, even if his exploits hardly merited a mention as the verbal spat got louder and louder in an hour of mayhem after the game.
Argentine captain Agustin Pichot accused Ireland of unsporting conduct, the International Rugby Board of neglect; Irish coach Eddie O’Sullivan responded by accusing the South American players of eye gouging - to such an extent that it merited asking the match commissioner to investigate.
In the event, the commissioner - Italian Alberto Recaldini - could find no evidence after examining the video of the game. Malcolm O’Kelly had a stitch inserted in a wound near his eye and O’Gara was amongst the victims as well.
That took the five-year playing war between Ireland and Argentina to a different level. Up to now, all sorts of things have happened on the pitch but stayed on it.
Clearly though, Pichot had more on his mind than complaining about Irish captain Brian O’Driscoll, whom he accused of trying to get any one of a number of Argentinean players sent off by referee Tony Spreadbury.
Pichot has a grudge, probably correct, against the IRB’s recent wand-waving exercise to solve the ills of world rugby. Argentina appear to be out on a limb.
On the basis of this game, O’Driscoll denies there was anything sinister. “I did speak to the referee on a number of occasions,” he confirmed.
Not that it mattered much. Anyone listening to Mr Spreadbury on the referee radio link would know that he appeared to treat the whole occasion as a joke. Strange then that at the after-match dinner, he was thanked by all and sundry “for playing a big role in a very enjoyable game.”
Protocol is protocol one supposes, but what about the truth?
If Pichot’s accusations against Ireland seemed way over the top - O’Driscoll, as captain, has indeed every right to question decisions and players around him have every right to complain if referees are incapable of proper judgement - he does have a point of argument with the IRB.
Argentina, he explained, feel isolated. “We have no competitions to play in, we don’t get proper financial support and next week, in a game that was sanctioned and arranged by the IRB, we find ourselves without ten of our first choice players because clubs in Europe refuse to release them.”
The exceptions to that are Stade Francais (for whom Pichot plays), Montpellier and Bourgoin. The bad news for Munster is that Castres hooker Mario Ledesma will square up to them on Friday.
That Argentinean beef aside, Irish coach O’Sullivan was determined that the matter should not be dropped, though for now it has to be.
“This is something we take very seriously indeed. We had two instances of it against Argentina in the World Cup and six of them in this game. One player had a stitch inserted in an eyelid and that is unacceptable. We feel it is only right to complain because that (eye gouging) has no acceptable place in sport.”
But O’Sullivan was more upbeat in his description of Ireland’s match-winning performance. “It was a gutsy display. We gave them the initiative with two turnovers early in the game and had to claw our way back from there. It was very tough at times because Argentina are traditionally very good at holding possession. They didn’t disappoint us on that score.
“We had to fight for every score we got and I got a message to Rog in the last couple of minutes to go for the drop goal. I honestly thought that because the way it was going, because our ruck ball was being slowed up, that it was the only way we could win the match.”
Things looked ominous at the interval with Argentina making the breaks and taking their opportunities as Ireland scorned theirs.
Ronan O’Gara dropped a goal and kicked a penalty but the Pumas were by far the more inventive side and were brilliantly fuelled by out half Felipe Contepomi who scored a third minute penalty.
Two minutes later Argentina were 10 points to the good with a try from centre Federico Martin Aramburu and a conversion from Contepomi.
O’Gara’s drop goal and penalty helped claw Ireland back into the game but the Argentinean out half was back on song with two penalties.
OK, things got better in the second half but it was still a scary period. O’Gara kicked penalties in the sixth and 18th minutes, either side of a Contepomi strike and then tacked on two more as Ireland sought victory.
From the last, though, there were eight agonising minutes with Argentina repelling everything Ireland could muster before O’Gara’s final throw of the dice.
: G. Dempsey, G. Murphy, B. O’Driscoll (captain), S. Horgan, D. Hickie, R. O’Gara, P. Stringer, R. Corrigan, S. Byrne, J. Hayes, M. O’Kelly, P. O’Connell, S. Easterby, A. Foley, J. O’Connor.
: E. Miller for O’Connor (64).
: JM Hernandez, L. Borges, F. Martin Aramburu, M. Contepomi, H. Senillosa, F. Contepomi, A. Pichot (captain), R. Roncero, M. K Ledesma, O. Hasan, R. Alvarz, P. Albacete, M. Durand, G. Longo, L. Ostiglia.
: T. Spreadbury (England).
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