A night after Caoimhín Kelleher's heroics against Finland, Ireland's rugby team narrowly held on to secure a much-needed win against Argentina in the Aviva Stadium.
Andy Farrell's side were keen to put things right after last Friday's lifeless defeat to New Zealand, and came out of the blocks firing against Felipe Contempomi's Pumas.
It was a chaotic start to the game, with a sin-bin for Argentina's Moroni for a head-high hit on Jack Crowley followed by the game's opening try from the Munster and Ireland fly-half.
𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐄𝐘!
Weaves through for his second international try!
🟢 7-0 🇦🇷#IREvARG | #AutumnNationsSeries pic.twitter.com/t7j77KA3MJ— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 15, 2024
Mack Hansen would soon add a second try, his first for Ireland in over a year. The Boys in Green certainly looked to be in better shape than this time last week.
There were undeniably some glaring issues with Ireland's discipline, as there were against New Zealand, with six penalties conceded before half-time. They were also opened up a touch too easily on occasion but, on the balance of things, they were decidedly improved from the All Blacks defeat.
When Joe McCarthy went over for a third try and Ireland went in 22-9 up at half-time, it seemed as though normal service had been resumed.
The issues that Ireland had played through in the first-half became a much bigger issue after the break, as more indiscipline allowed Los Pumas back into the game. Within ten minutes of half-time, the score was back to 22-19 as the visitors brought a renewed energy to the contest.
By the game's conclusion, even with Argentina down to 14 men, Ireland were clinging on to victory, and the relief on the faces of the Irish players come the full-time whistle was hugely telling.
It was a welcome result after last week's defeat but nobody was under any illusions about the issues behind this Ireland performance. Analysing the game on TNT Sports post-match, Ireland legend Brian O'Driscoll gave a frank assessment of the disciplinary issues that have defined the past few weeks for Ireland.
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Brian O'Driscoll dissects Ireland's dramatic win v Argentina
Brian O'Driscoll was part of TNT Sports' punditry team in the Aviva Stadium on Friday night, and had a read on a worrying trend developing across Ireland's last few games.
Ireland conceded a whopping 13 penalties on the night - more than twice the opposition's count of six. It was a stat which led Andy Farrell to suggest there were some "desperate" elements to the Irish performance in his post-match interview.
The disciplinary issues which plagued Ireland against Argentina were not new, with O'Driscoll producing a worrying stat about the penalty count in Dublin. O'Driscoll was also frustrated at the nature of penalties Andy Farrell's side were giving away, saying they were not "good" penalties.
It's clearly an issue. It's the third game in a row that they've lost the penalty count, the exact same as last week. They would have been talking about reducing it.
In an ideal world, you want to keep it under 10 but you have to probably be pushing the boundaries enough to test the referee to give away a few penalties. There's good penalties and bad penalties to give away but today there were too many offsides.
In defence, you're obviously squeezing pressure on the referee to produce a yellow card like he did with Joe McCarthy.
And then [there was] just a lack of accuracy at ruck time which has been a real costly place in the last few weeks as well, where you've got all the momentum going forward and then suddenly the opposition shows up. It's like it takes the air out of your tyres, momentum, possession, territory all gone 50 metres down the end of the field. It just pumps the tyres of the opposition.
On both sides of the ball, when you're giving penalties away, it takes away your impetus and gives it to the opposition.
There is no doubt Andy Farrell too will be deeply concerned by the penalties given away by Ireland in recent weeks, after another sub-optimal display on Friday night.
It will be an issue the coaching team will be hoping to fix in the coming weeks as Ireland look to build on their first win of the November series against Argentina.
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