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.

“It was always going to be difficult, given the history of the fixture and what was at stake. You’ve got to be clever in the way you play against them, sometimes teams go out and play the ball well in front of them like France did in the first match of the World Cup last year and you can suffer as a result. Coming into the game they hadn’t conceded a try; it took us a long time to break them down and as a game it was no spectacle, it was more like a game of chess. It was hard to get quick possession at the breakdown; we have to look at that and other things and assess why that was the case.”

Even though they did struggle to win quick ball from the rucks, Ireland won the penalty count, the line out battle with three steals to one, were comfortable at scrum time but still couldn’t produce the goods.

Just about the only cheer of the opening 40 minutes came when Tommy Bowe and David Wallace combined to create a try-scoring opportunity before Stephen Ferris knocked on when he failed to hold the last pass.

The only consolation was that Argentina offered even less threat. Stand-in fly half Santiago Hernandez did give his side the lead with a 35th minute penalty but O’Gara, who conceded that penalty, made amends immediately when he got Ireland on the board to level at three points apiece.

Despite an equally uninspiring start to the second half, Ireland did manage to take the lead with a second penalty from O’Gara, who then saved Ireland from disaster when getting back to save a try after Tomas O’Leary had his attempted clearance charged down.

Ireland came close to scoring a try but had to settle for a penalty chance for O’Gara after 61 minutes, the out half pushing it left and wide before then missing a drop goal attempt.

He did put Ireland six up with a successful drop goal 12 minutes from the end and tacked on a penalty after 73 minutes to give his side breathing space for the first time in a decade against the Pumas. Seconds ticking away, O’Gara’s perfectly aimed kick to the wing was grabbed by Bowe for the only try of the game; the relief was palpable.

“It (rugby) isn’t ever a rose garden, some of the things we achieved and some things we need to work on will be taken on board,” mused Kidney.

IRELAND: G. Murphy, T. Bowe, B. O’Driscoll (capt), L. Fitzgerald, R. Kearney, R. O’Gara, T. O’Leary: M. Horan, J. Flannery, J. Hayes, D. O’Callaghan, P. O’Connell, S. Ferris, J. Heaslip, D. Wallace.

Replacements: R. Best for Flannery (13, inj.), D. Ryan for Wallace (75, inj.).

ARGENTINA: H. Agulla, F. Morey, F. Aramburu, M. Avramovic, R. Carballo, S. Fernandez, N. Vergallo; R. Rocero, M. Ledesma, J Orlandi, R Kairelis, P. Albacete, M. Durand, J. Leguizamon, J. Fernandez Lobbe (capt).

Replacements: M. Ayerza for Orlandi (48). E. Lozada for Alvarez Kairelis (55). B. Stortoni for Morey, A. Figuerola for Vergallo (both 60).

Referee: B. Lawrence (New Zealand).