Stakes are high as Pumas wait in long grass

Ireland will have to deliver something they have not managed in more than 12 months to avoid being consigned to world rugby’s margins for the next three years.

It really is that simple for head coach Declan Kidney, whose fate, like many of his senior players, could well be sealed should they lose to Argentina tomorrow at the Aviva Stadium.

Defeat to the Pumas means relegation out of the top eight in the IRB’s world rankings and a third-tier seeding for the 2015 World Cup draw to be held in London in 10 days. The consequences of that are huge, with Ireland facing in a potential pool that could, for example feature New Zealand and Wales.

Ireland, of course, have beaten higher-ranked teams in the past, most recently the then Tri-Nations champions Australia 13 months ago at the last World Cup. But it took a complete performance and something that has been lacking since highlighted most recently in the last Test against South Africa a fortnight ago, when Kidney’s team blew a 12-3 lead over the Springboks and lost a very winnable match 16-12.

What would Ireland have to do better this weekend, Kidney was asked yesterday.

“Play for the 80 minutes,” was the head coach’s instant response. “We probably got a good 40 there [against South Africa]. We didn’t back it up then with [another] good 40.

“We probably got a good 60 against Fiji. Against Argentina we’re probably going to need to play eight good 10-minute blocks because if you drop off in any of them you’ll get seven, 10, 13 points and they’re a hard team to claw that back.

“We know they’re going to pick off scores, we can’t do anything about it, they’re so proficient in drop goals, you can see six points coming that way and if they get a couple of penalty that’s 12 and you’re chasing the game too early.

“So we have to build up our experience levels very quickly and that’s not an easy thing to do but I can’t fault these guys for the way they’ve gone about their work. They’ve gone about it really well and that’s all we can ask of a team.”

Kidney yesterday made just one change to the match-day squad beaten by South Africa, although even that minimal adjustment featured an uncharacteristic break from conservatism when he handed 21-year-old Craig Gilroy a Test debut on the left wing at the expense of fellow Ulsterman Andrew Trimble, dropped from the squad completely, and Leinster’s Fergus McFadden, who remains rooted to the replacement bench having been leapfrogged.

McFadden would have been the obvious choice for promotion given his greater experience than Gilroy and he did his prospects no harm with a two-try haul in the 53-0 win over Fiji in last Saturday’s non-cap match at Thomond Park.

Gilroy, though, not only eclipsed that with a hat-trick but with both players featuring on left and right wings during that game, he convinced Kidney he was the better operator on the left and that got him the nod to face Argentina.

“I suppose there’s different defence nuances, being able to read it,” Kidney explained. “It’s a read as much as anything and its only something you will get by playing there on a regular basis. And he has played there quite a bit even though he is just as comfortable on the right wing. That’s what stood to him because I think he’s reading it quite well.”

With so much at stake tomorrow it is a big call but Ireland will not stand or fall on Gilroy’s performance and Kidney will not hide in the excuses of missing six senior frontline players this month. In fact, they have been as much a part of Ireland’s reasons, as Kidney sees it, for reaching this point of no return.

“We’re fully aware of what the consequences are in terms of rankings and going forward and things like that but we can’t do anything about that now.

“We’ve arrived in this situation probably because of the warm-up matches for the last World Cup, where we slipped from fourth to eighth. That’s why we find ourselves in this situation. But the lads have trained as diligently as any bunch I’ve had and we’re up against a hugely experienced side and that’s the only thing we can focus on.

“They’re probably the best prepared November Argentinian side we’ll ever have played against, coming off what they have done [in the Rugby Championship].

“They’ve been together for three and a half of the last five months, the experience they have right down throughout the side is impressive and all that we can do is just try and focus in on ourselves to overcome what’s going to be a huge challenge.”