The good, the bad and the ugly

IN the context of what might havebeen, victory was most welcome at Croke Park on Saturday. However that won’t diminish coach Declan Kidney’s food for thought in the weeks leading up to the Six Nations Championship.

When he pores over the video of this game, he’s unlikely to break out the popcorn. It was an ugly, occasionally tempestuous 80 minutes and Ireland allowed themselves to be sucked in by an Argentinian side limited by the loss of captain Felipe Contepomi and out half Juan Martin Hernandez.

If Argentina struggled without two key backs, Ireland had no excuses in an error strewn and lacklustre performance that frustrated the 68,000 record crowd for this fixture. Captain Brian O’Driscoll reflected public opinion and described the match as “brutal”. Kidney elaborated and admitted it wasn’t in the plan to participate in a match of such low quality.