O’Sullivan is wiser about the Pumas

Argentina 16 Ireland 0

Saturday’s defeat at the Jose Amalfitani Stadium in Buenos Aires cannot be ranked as a hammering, but it was a disappointing result and gives lie to the argument that Ireland has strength and quality in reserve.

O’Sullivan said that the tour served its purpose, and that he could name four-fifths of his World Cup squad now, but intends to wait until after the World Cup warm-up match against Scotland on August 11 before finalising his 30-man travelling party for France.

Alan Quinlan and Stephen Ferris (before retiring injured) certainly returned home with excellent report cards from Argentina. Though O’Sullivan said that Ireland are “a little thin in the backs” the versatile Gavin Duffy, Rob Kearney and Brian Carney put their hands up for World Cup place tickets.

Jeremy Staunton’s shot at a World Cup place took another strange twist. It would be easy to pinpoint his three missed penalties as the root of this defeat, but Ireland made too many handling errors and lacked a clinical edge inside the final third of the field. Never was this more apparent than in a ten-minute period before half-time.

Staunton cannot be fingered for this defeat in what was his first Ireland start at out-half. Defensively he looked sound and kicked to touch well in the first half, but the strong downfield wind on the turnover impinged on any control he wanted to exert on proceedings.

It cannot have helped either that Staunton and the other Irish kickers were denied access to the stadium on Friday to familiarise themselves with the dimensions of what was a tight and narrow ground. And, as was the case in Sante Fe, little mercy is accorded visiting place-kickers by a whistle-happy home crowd.

However O’Sullivan cut a less forgiving figure in assessing where this game was won and lost.

“We probably should have scored more points. Certainly we missed three kicks at goal today. Normally we’d expect to score those penalties.

“But I think the real difference between the teams — apart from the kicking — was one score. Argentina got a try, we didn’t get a try and that decided the game really.”

O’Sullivan says he’s wiser about the Argentineans, who showed their hand in many aspects of their game. While happy that the Ireland scrum held its own, except in the wheel that led to Manuel Contepomi’s try, the Irish coach knows that the Pumas rely heavily on scramble defence and recognises how good they are at the break down and at slowing up ball, whether legally or illegally.

“We had difficulty clearing out the player contesting the ball. It just seems to happen every time someone plays Argentina the ball gets slowed up, so you’d have to wonder are they doing something nobody else is doing. Are they good at it or are they getting away with it a bit better than other people?”

Ireland produced the good and the bad inside the opening sequences of play. Geordan Murphy flung a wild pass to Gavin Duffy which Brian Carney did well to retrieve while Staunton’s assured field kicking was good. But over the entire match there appeared to be a lack of communication in the three-quarter line with a plethora of misplaced passes, mistimed runs and careless knock-ons. Barry Murphy tried hard, but will surely enjoy better outings in the green shirt.

Staunton first penalty chance arrived on 25 minutes but his kick from just inside half way peeled slightly left of the posts.

Between the 30th and 40th minutes Ireland had the Pumas pinned inside the red-zone but could not make it count on the scoreboard. Even when they were finally forced into accepting a kick at goal, Staunton’s dragged his wind-assisted effort wide. Argentina rubbed salt in the wounds with another Todeschini penalty to leave it 6-0 at half time.

The number 10 atoned for a 55th minute miss by pushing the Pumas 9-0 in front minutes later, swinging over a huge wind-assisted effort.

It got worse for Ireland in the 80th minute. From a wheeled five-metre scrum, Nicolas Vergallo fed Manuel Contepomi, who broke through timid defence for a try which Todeschini did well to convert.