Farrell admits to putting more pressure on captain Doris ahead of Pumas clash

ADDED EXPECTATION: Ireland captain Caelan Doris, right, celebrates at the final whistle. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Andy Farrell admitted he placed extra pressure on rookie Ireland captain Caelan Doris following defeat to New Zealand and was delighted to see him rise to the challenge in the victory over Argentina.

Doris captained Ireland for just the fourth time last Friday night at Aviva Stadium as the national team rebounded from a concerning 23-13 defeat to New Zealand with an improved performance to defeat the Pumas 22-19.

The 26-year-old No.8 had admitted on the eve of the weekend’s Autumn Nations Series clash that he was not happy with his individual contribution against the All Blacks and that he, along with his team-mates felt they were being given a second chance to atone for the defeat.

Ireland duly did, at least inconsistently, with a fast start and some slick attacking fluidity to take a 12-0 lead after five minutes and go into half-time 22-9 ahead as Doris led his side to victory for the third time following a Six Nations win over Italy and the second Test victory over South Africa in July.

Farrell said: "It's big for Caelan. It's big being captain of the side.

“Even subconsciously, not that it's said, I probably put more pressure on him because of last week of the team's performance. I'm sure he takes a bit of extra responsibility for that.

“He's very good at taking on a challenge and relishing that challenge. He's as good as anyone at dealing at stuff that's not going well and making good sure of it. It's all good learning steps for us."

Doris, meanwhile was proud of his team’s defensive efforts as they put together two important stands inside their 22 at the end of each half to restrict a potent Argentina attack to a single, spectacularly taken try just after the interval from full-back Juan Cruz Mallia.

"Yeah, it's pleasing that we were on the right side of the result, definitely,” the skipper said. “The nature of lads fronting up when they took us on around the fringes probably a little more than we expected.

“In the first half, they probably won a lot of those collisions and it was probably better in the second half but the fight from lads staying in, a double effort trying to make a mess of the breakdown and I think that was what got the ball back for us at the end and allowed us to get the win."