‘You’ve got to earn the right to go around Argentina’

JAMIE HEASLIP has been through a fair share of physical battles during his 30-match Irish international rugby career, but he can’t remember any as tough as Argentina, who play at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday and renew what many would describe as hostilities rather than rivalries.

Heaslip has no particular axe to grind other than to want this game put to bed with a solid victory behind him and the team. But he knows better than those who figure it might be easy.

“The thing about playing Argentina is that they close down a lot of your space, so the ability to go side to side or throw it about isn’t there as much as you’d want it to be in a game.

“You’ve got to go through them to earn the right to go around them,” he said.

Another huge physical battle is hardly something he needs given the fact he had to run himself to a standstill against the All Blacks last weekend. The fact that he couldn’t remember how many tackles he was forced to make probably tells its own story. In the end it was futile as New Zealand cruised clear by 38 points to 18 and it’s something that clearly upset the Irish number eight.

“People pat us on the back and say you did us proud but at the end of the day we lost.

“They’re so clinical and precise with what they do. You just can’t make a mistake. We did and ended five metres from our own try line or they scored a try. That’s the thing about them; they’re not massively faster than anyone but they’re so streetwise and clinical.”

Heaslip has only one clear view of which of the three games stands out of the Autumn series — the win over Samoa tops everything. He noted: “Last week we got to throw the ball around for the first time because it was dry. The previous two weeks it has been pretty wet and we weren’t able to throw it around. As a team I would have to go with the result and say Samoa.”

This week’s challenge will be launched from different areas of the pitch, however, with Heaslip acknowledging the Irish pack must have a good day at the office to have any serious chance of putting the Pumas to the sword.

The inclusion of Felipe Contepomi and the individual spats he has had with Irish players over the years could whet the appetite for action this weekend, but Heaslip doesn’t cast a second thought about individual battles or past grievances. He’s in this for the now, although having soldiered with Contepomi for Leinster he knows well to expect danger.

“I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on him, because in my experience even when he’s tackled he’s not out of the game — he can throw in an unbelievable offload or wriggle himself out of tackles the whole time.

“I don’t know if people see it, but my experience of Felipe is that he’s an unbelievably passionate man in whatever team he plays for, he’s a very proud man. For someone like him, who will consider being captain as a massive honour, he’s going to lead by example and will play with passion and pride. He’s got that bit of Latin blood, that bit of heat in him, but there’s never a bad bone in him that’s for sure.”

Meanwhile, Ireland’s forwards coach Smal praised the Pumas for their attention to detail in scrum play and described them thus: “Generally, they’re as good a front row as there is in the world, they’re up there at the top, one of the top four scrummaging teams in world rugby.

“They pride themselves in it, it’s a big thing for them and we are expecting to be attacked there.”

BUT Smal is sure Ireland won’t take a backward step and he was happy with the performance against New Zealand last weekend.

“I reckon it was the first time in a long time that we managed to push the All Blacks back, so that was a positive. We still have to get to be the finished product but we’re definitely on the right track.”

There are areas of forward play in which Ireland need to improve, however, with Smal having some reservations about the line outs and work at the re-start during last week’s game.

Ireland, he reckoned, were outfoxed by New Zealand’s star out-half Dan Carter, whom he said had developed kick-off skills to such an art that he can put the ball exactly where he wants it.

“If you look at what he did with us, when we were away from the touchline he put it just on the touch line, and when we closed the touch line he put it right in between us so that we had to run in to get it (ball) and still missed it; he has really brought it to a fine art.”

Smal believes Ireland have it within themselves to improve before rounding off this autumn series of Tests but stressed there was considerable need for that to happen. But this game against Argentina is, like the previous three, part of a development trend as Ireland build up to the World Cup next year.

He explained: “The first year was (about) to get results, the second year was to develop the squad because you can’t win a World Cup with just 15 players. It has been part of our process so that into next year we know exactly that we have 45 to 60 players.”