Mario Ledesma impressed by 'hugely improved' Ireland

Argentina head coach Mario Ledesma (right)

Argentina coach Mario Ledesma has been left in no doubt but that Ireland have taken huge strides forward in recent years.

He was only months in the job when his Pumas last came to Dublin, this time three years ago, and lost 28-17. This latest visit ended on Sunday afternoon with a 53-7 hammering so his appreciation of the hosts is perfectly understandable.

“France and Ireland were the best teams of the international window. Obviously, the level they showed against the All Blacks and how they dominated them throughout the 80 minutes was quite impressive so, yes, I would say they are a hugely improved team from a couple of years back.”

This was the last game in a punishing period for the visitors and, while the final margin was considerable, there were points in the afternoon when the South Americans could have asked more serious questions of Andy Farrell’s side.

“Obviously the last 20 minutes is difficult to analyse when you come from (receiving) a yellow card and a red card. I thought there was a big moment in the first-half where we missed six points and then obviously that big opportunity when we could have scored.

“We could have come back to 17-14 or 17-17. A minute later they scored and it was 24-7 and then we saw in the second-half we had two good lineouts positions which we missed and then they scored again and the difference was pretty big at that point.”

It’s been a torturous time for the Pumas who have seen the Jaguares omitted from Super Rugby and the extended amount of time they have had to spend on the road between their Rugby Championship duties and this European tour.

“Not playing at home for two years has been tough because we have been in a bubble everywhere we have gone. Sometimes we have a day off where we can go sightseeing but just for a picture and then we go back.

“It’s been really hard on the players and we don’t have the budget to bring the families like some other teams do so it has been tough and they have been grinding the whole year. It is a big ask for players.

“We are always talking about player welfare and mental health and then you go two years without playing at home and being in a bubble, I challenge any team to do that, it would be a struggle. At the same time it is not an excuse.

“These are the conditions we are playing in and we have not been getting the results.

“We expected a different result today and thought that up until yesterday we had a pretty good tour, a very good game against France, winning convincingly against Italy and then coming into this game with three weeks of work, obviously we expected differently.”