D’Arcy: NZ game showed us we are narrowing gap to world’s elite

IRELAND should be thankful they don’t have to spend too much time assessing Argentinean play-maker Felipe Contepomi a few days before the last of their autumn internationals at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday.

Contepomi’s immense strengths and occasional weaknesses won’t waste much of Ireland’s video analysis time, but Ireland’s Gordon D’Arcy has been doing his own prep in addition to whatever is available to the team following Ireland’s defeat to New Zealand.

As D’Arcy reflected on performance and worries about the fact he picked up a calf injury, he remains focused on taking on Argentina: “Looking at their (Argentina’s) results, especially the French one at the weekend, it shows what a challenge we have. Argentina always seem hard to break down and to run France so close on French soil is a good indicator of what they can bring to the Aviva on Sunday.