Ireland hold on to earn 22-19 win over Argentina in Aviva Stadium
Adam Schmitz and Oisín Gaffey Report from The Aviva Stadium
Following a disappointing result last week against New Zealand which saw Ireland lose their 19-game win streak, Irish fans packed out the Aviva Stadium to see Ireland scrape their way to a 22-19 win over a strong Argentina side.
The performance was far from perfect, but it will have been a welcome win for Andy Farrell’s men after an underwhelming performance against the All Blacks last week. Speaking prior to the game, Farrell noted that Ireland’s reputation for bouncing back from defeat had “certainly been addressed”. Ireland have only lost two games in a row once under Farrell’s leadership, and he had no interest in repeating that feat tonight. The head coach made just one change to the starting line up following last week’s game, with Robbie Henshaw coming in for Bundee Aki.
First Half
The clash with Argentina got off to a shaky start for Andy Farrell’s men as Argentina easily broke through the Irish defence and saw a try in the second minute at the hands of Matias Moroni. However, a TMO check led to the cancellation of the try and a yellow card handed to Moroni for foul play on Jack Crowley moments earlier, in which the centre smashed into Crowley’s head. Moroni’s yellow card was sent to review but didn’t warrant any further action.
Ireland wasted no time reacting to the scare and Jack Crowley scored his first points of the night through a clever try as a result of good movement forward from Rónan Kelleher after an Irish line-out. The early try will have been important to the Irish fly-half after some commentary throughout the last weeks of pundits saying his position is under pressure from Sam Prendergast. Crowley easily converted the try to give Ireland an early lead.
Just minutes later Ireland scored again, this time through Mack Hansen who played just his second game for Ireland in a year after picking up an injury last year. Gary Ringrose was strong in getting through the Argentinian defence before the ball made its way through Jamison Gibson-Park and Tadhg Beirne who found Hansen to secure the second try of the game. Hansen spoke candidly prior to the game about Ireland’s loss to the All Blacks last week, saying “There’s a lot of hard chats, a lot of honest talks on why things went that way”. Jack Crowley narrowly missed the conversion this time, leaving the score at 12-0 five minutes into the game.
Los Pumas, under the leadership of former-Leinster man Felipe Contepomi, scored two penalties in quick succession. Thomas Albornoz secured Argentina’s first points of the game after Ireland were penalised for an offside, before gaining another three points following foul play from Finlay Bealham. The yellow card received by Bealham for his illegal Croc Roll ultimately led to Tom Clarkson coming on to make his Ireland debut. The 24-year-old, who has 47 caps for Leinster, was met with huge applause as he entered the pitch, replacing Josh van der Flier temporarily, as Ireland needed a prop at scrumtime.
Jack Crowley furthered Ireland’s advantage to 15-6 midway through the half with a drop goal before his points were cancelled out from the five metre line through another penalty from Thomas Albornoz.
The 31st minute saw another try for Ireland, this time through Joe McCarthy. An excellent pass from Jamison Gibson-Park allowed McCarthy to get the ball down for another five points, soon to be added to through a successful Jack Crowley conversion. The strike play came off the back of a well-executed Irish lineout. James Ryan caught the ball well at the back of the lineout, offloading quickly to his scrum-half, who played Robbie Henshaw through a tight gap in the Argentinian defence. Breaking over the gainline, Henshaw neatly offloaded inside to James Lowe, who came within inches of crossing the whitewash himself. After a smooth ruck, Gibson-Park teed up McCarthy nicely to score Ireland’s third try of the half.
Ireland had to soak up a lot of pressure at the end of the first half, giving away a series of sloppy penalties. Their defence held firm, though, and as Argentina looked to shake things up with a tap-and-go penalty, Ireland were wise to it and forced a crucial turnover as the clock went red. Crowley then booted the ball off the pitch, drawing the first forty minutes to a close.
Second Half
Argentina came out for the second half as the stronger side, scoring a 45th minute try after Juan Cruz Mallía brushed past four players to tighten the score line. The full-back scored two tries in Argentina’s convincing win over Australia earlier this year and saw his try converted by Albornoz who added to his points tally for the night. More Argentinian dominance saw a yellow card handed to Joe McCarthy and another three points for Tomás Albornoz.
The 52nd minute saw Tom Clarkson replace Finlay Bealham, putting an end to his 44th test cap. With Argentina becoming stronger and losing by a margin of just three points, the scoreline reading 22-19 Andy Farrell made three changes in quick succession with James Ryan, Robbie Henshaw and Jack Crowley being replaced by Ryan Baird, Jamie Osborne and Sam Prendergast who made his Irish debut. At just 21 years of age, the Kildare man has 20 appearances and 75 points for his home province.
The 66th minute saw Andrew Porter replaced by Cian Healy, making him Ireland’s joint most capped player of all time with 133 appearances, a number matched only by Brian O’Driscoll. Healy’s Ireland career began in 2009 and prior to this evening had seen 3532 minutes played, 94 starts and 60 points delivered through 12 tries. The Aviva Stadium erupted to welcome the record-matcher onto the pitch, in what at this point had become a very tightly contested game.
Following a 71st minute effort which saw Ireland halted just short of the try line, Argentina’s Francisco Gómez Kodela received a yellow card for a dangerous clearout on Irish captain Caelan Doris which would see the away side see out the end of the game a man down. This no doubt played to Ireland’s advantage during a spell of serious pressure in the closing minutes of the game, with a strong defence being enough to seal the victory, 22-19, in front of a roaring Irish crowd.
Overall, it was a disappointing second half from Ireland, who failed to get on the scoreboard. Whilst they removed the majority of the handling errors that we saw last week against New Zealand, their discipline continued to prove troublesome, as they failed to capitalise on moments when Argentina were under pressure.
It’s a job done for Andy Farrell’s men tonight, but there is no doubt the head coach will not be happy with that performance.
In better news, debutants Sam Prendergast and Tom Clarkson performed well and are definitely worth keeping an eye on in the future.
This result sees Argentina remain winless in Dublin, having never beat the Irish team on home soil. Their last visit to Dublin was in November 2021 which saw a 53-7 loss, a record result in the fixture.
The two sides came into tonight’s tightly contested fixture off the back of very different results. Ireland’s well reported disappointing performance against New Zealand last week is a stark contrast to Los Pumas’ 50-18 victory against the Italians. Argentina have developed a reputation recently as ‘Giant Killers’, having followed up last year’s fourth place finish in the World Cup with wins in 2024 against New Zealand, South Africa and a victory against Australia which saw them turn a 20-3 deficit at halftime into a staggering 67-27 win.
Felipe Contepomi, who has spent over a decade with the Leinster team, will be disappointed with tonight’s result as they head to Paris for a clash with France next Friday. Andy Farrell’s Irish side will be pleased with the result, but perhaps not filled with confidence as they continue the series with upcoming games against Fiji and Australia.
Team Lineup:
Ireland: Andrew Porter, Ronan Kelleher, Finlay Bealham; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (C); Jamison Gibson-Park, Jack Crowley, James Lowe, Robbie Henshaw, Gary Ringrose, Mack Hansen, Hugo Keenan
Substitutes: Ronan Kelleher, Cian Healy, Tom Clarkson*, Ryan Baird, Peter O’Mahony, Craig Casey, Sam Prendergast*, Jamie Osborne
Argentina: Thomas Gallo, Jualián Montoya (C), Joel Sclavi; Guido Petti, Pedro Rubiolo; Pablo Matera, Juan Martín González, Joaquin Oviedo; Gonzalo Bertranou, Tomás Albornoz, Bautista Delguy, Matías Moroni, Lucio Cinti, Rodrigo Isgró, Juan Cruz Mallía
Substitutes: Ignacio Ruiz, Ignacio Calles, Francisco Gómez Kodela, Franco Molina, Santiago Grondona, Gonzalo García, Santiago Carreras, Justo Piccardo*
Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)
Assistant: Craig Evans (Wales)
Assistant: Angus Mabey (New Zealand)
TMO: Andrew Jackson (England)