Argentina prepare to get serious

The car park serving the Vale of Glamorgan report is always awash with cars, but the scope of the place swallows up the many residents and customers. It makes for a relaxing countryside retreat, far from the madding crowd of Cardiff, where Ireland are stationed this week.

Daniel Hourcade’s Argentinian players wander in and out of the lobby. Some are eating off plates as they lope about, most scan their phones or just shoot the breeze. That laidback approach to life this past few days has been apparent in the Morgannwg Suite, too.

Juan Martin Hernandez, Marcos Ayerza and Martin Landajo have all sat down and shot the breeze there with the Irish and British press, asking for questions to be delivered slowly before responding fluently and openly in flowing English.