Head coach Andy Farrell was satisfied to celebrate an “ugly” victory after Ireland returned to winning ways by scraping a 22-19 success over spirited Argentina in Dublin.
The Six Nations champions survived a major scare as they held off a stirring fightback from Los Pumas to bounce back from last weekend’s deflating 23-13 defeat to New Zealand.
Following a promising first half which brought tries for Jack Crowley, Mack Hansen and Joe McCarthy and a 22-9 lead, Ireland failed to score a point in the second period and were left hanging on during a nervy climax.
Farrell said: “It was three or four games in one, wasn’t it, really?
“Obviously the overriding feeling is we’re delighted to get the win. There are a few things we needed to learn from last week and some things that we didn’t address there on the field.
“But we said last week we had a chance of winning ugly, we did that this week, so that’s a plus.”
Argentina, coached by former Leinster fly-half Felipe Contepomi, were chasing a first win on Irish soil and another scalp of 2024 following victories over France, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.
After Crowley and Hansen crossed early on, Tadhg Beirne could have piled further pressure on the visitors in the 15th minute but he lost control of the ball just before grounding.
Argentina seized the momentum before the break and, following 14 points from Tomas Albornoz and Juan Cruz Mallia’s solo try, very nearly capitalised on Irish indiscipline to pull off an upset.
“Just going through the game, I thought we showed some real good intent, certainly in the first half, how we started the game,” said Farrell.
“We were direct, we were piling into them, we were hard work to handle, playing off quick ball.
“If, on the back of that, we get the try from Tadhg Beirne that probably justifies the score a little bit because of the dominance that we had.
“But we know the type of side that they are, they’ve improved out of sight, Argentina. And the pressure they put on us and we put on ourselves in the second half brought them back into the game.
“To cut a long story short, we held our nerve towards the end and just about got there.”
In a chaotic contest, both sides were twice temporarily reduced to 14 men as Ireland pair Finlay Bealham and McCarthy and Pumas duo Matias Moroni and Francisco Gomez Kodela each spent time in the sin bin.
Kodela’s 74th-minute departure – for ploughing into the head of Caelan Doris – stifled Argentina’s progress at a pivotal moment.
Contepomi rued fine margins after falling agonisingly short of leading his country to a landmark result.
“It’s disappointing obviously because it hurts and I hate losing more than what I love, which is winning,” the Argentina boss said.
“The performance itself, we didn’t start well but we got into the game and I think we ended up in good form.
“When you play against the best teams in the world you know it’s going to go to the 80th minute and it will be small margins, and that was it.
“We’ve a lot to improve but we’ve got a good platform of where to improve.”
