Argentina 17
Ireland 29
IRELAND GOT THEIR summer tour underway with a 29-17 win over Argentina in Resistencia. A Manuel Montero try had the home side 10-6 ahead after half an hour but tries from Chris Henry, Jonny Sexton and Andrew Trimble sealed the tie.
Ireland should have crossed the whitewash in the opening stages, following a superb Darren Cave line break, but debutant flanker Robbie Diack opted to cut inside rather than pass to Simon Zebo or Felix Jones on the overlap. Two Sexton penalties had the Six Nations champions 6-0 up. Ireland were soon to have a man advantage — Benjamin Macone was sin-binned for taking Trimble out in the air, but Argentina had the next two scores.
Nicolas Sanchez’ penalty cut Ireland’s lead in half after 26 minutes before Montero scorched in a superb try. Joaquín Tuculet sparked the score with a great take before Nicolas Sanchez left Luke Marshall trailing. He found Montero in support and the winger dumbfounded Sexton and Trimble to score in the corner.
Ireland regrouped and took advantage of the extra man in the pack, with Chris Henry mauling over. Sexton missed the conversion and Ireland led 11-10 at the break. Sexton punctured the Argentine defence two minutes after the re-start and powered over after a wrap-around give and go with Marshall.
The game was effectively over after 57 minutes when Trimble raced in a try from 50 metres out after a smart intercept in midfield. Sexton missed the conversion and a leg injury saw him withdrawn for Ian Madigan five minutes later. The Leinster out-half added two penalties in the closing stages as Ireland closed out the game.
Cave looked to have scored the try his performance merited but his legs were dragged out of touch before he could touch down. It mattered little but Schmidt will be pleased that his players were still looking for scores after a straining first hour.
He will be less pleased, however, with his team allowing Tomas de la Vega to force his way over for a converted try with two minutes remaining. The victory was only Ireland’s second official away win over Argentina.
Argentina scorersTries: Montero, de la Vega
Conversions: Sanchez, Gonzalez Iglesias
Penalties: Sanchez
Ireland scorers
Tries: Henry, Sexton, Cave
Conversions: Sexton
Penalties: Sexton (2), Madigan (2)
Argentina: J Tuculet; S Cordero, J De La Fuente, G Ascarate, M Montero; N Sanchez, M Landajo: L Noguera Paz, M Cortese, R Herrera; M Carizza, T Lavanini; R Baez, T De La Vega, B Macone.
Replacements: J Montoya, B Postiglioni, N Telaz Chaparo, M Alemanno, J Ortega Desio, T Cubelli, S Gonzalez, Iglesias, L Gonzalez Amorisino.
Ireland: F Jones, A Trimble, D Cave, L Marshall (F McFadden); S Zebo J Sexton (I Madigan), C Murray (K Marmion): J McGrath (D Kilcoyne), R Best (D Varley), M Ross (R Ah You); I Henderson P O’Connell (D Toner); R Diack, C Henry, J Murphy (J Heaslip).
Cave certainly stood up and took his chance
Poor performance by Marshall, F Jones shouldn’t be starting.
Of the newer guys Henderson, McGrath were fantastic, Cave, Murphy, and Zebo all stepped showed up well. Heaslip obviously on his hols.
Completely agree about Heaslip. He looked like he was in second gear.
Zebo was shocking. Poor defensively once again. Nearly cost three tries coming in off set piece instead of staying on his man
Happy we won, that Montero try was fantastic, could have a big future.
5 missed tackles in the run up. Great finish though
In all fairness, Diack was the obvious MOTM. Sexton had a pretty good game but Diack was hitting rucks and carrying like a man possessed. He was our number one lineout jumper too.
And butchered a three on one. Good to see the guys commitment but that shows he is not up to this level.
I can forgive that, seeing how it was his first international cap and it was the only mistake he made all game.
Butchered a 2 on 1 later on as well. He had a good game but was definitely not a MOTM
Argentina have some clever runners. Zebo was strong in defence and it was great to see the centre pairing working well. Interesting game.
Eh, Zebo’s defence has improved but it’s still a long way off international standard. Trimble, Cave, and Marshall made him look very good with some sloppy tackles though.
People were always slagging him for his defense and he’s clearly worked on it a lot. Try to look at things positively.
I am mate. I agree he’s improved but he’s not there yet. He’s still young yet, plenty of time to work on it. Trimble and Bowe took a while to mature and look where they are now.
Its his hairstyle he needs to improve
He made his tackles I’ll give him that but his decision making and positioning was poor once again.
Marshall is not international material! And Ireland’s anxious line speed will not please Schmitd!
Sexton had a great match overall, but he’s still having more trouble kicking from the touchlines than I’d expect from a player of his ability.
Can’t wait till Olding and Henshaw are back to fitness and playing regularly again at provincial level; then we’ll really have top centre competition. Those two are going to be serious with time
Cave was good, deserves to keep 13
Henshaw deserves a go in November
Disagree. Cave’s defence was good in how quick he pressed but it left Marshall vulnerable at times with the offload now people might start to see why Darcy is so important to this team- STiLL. The future is not with Cave but a pick between when all fit TBowe, Luke Fitz, Jared Payne, Robbie Henshaw or Stuart Olding if he returns well from injury. Cannot knock Cave’s effort but he offers too little in attack as brave as they come though. Iain Henderson was colossal.
You basically just agreed with me
No I didn’t, I was replying to Brian Moore…
Good win things moving forward Alot of lessons learned with a great performance. Henderson and cave looked like internationals. Roll on next week
All this game has shown me is that we have serious issues at 12 and 15. Marshall and Jones were horrendous. Things markedly improved once McFadden came on. Cave was fairly average, did some good things, did some bad things. Ah You needs to get back on a plane to Connacht. Can definitely see why he’s not a regular starter there. Doesn’t even look match fit to play 10 minutes.
All was not lost though. Diack was excellent, Murphy played well before coming on for a pretty useless Heaslip, Marmion had a nice cameo, and Henderson increased his already formidable reputation.
Ultimately, we made a team comprised mostly of amateurs look very good.
Very harsh analysis.
Lots of positives in that performance.
I like to think of myself as harsh but fair. There were lots of positives, which I outlined, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore the negatives.
You like to think of yourself?
Well I’m hardly going to go around thinking of other people. That’d be rude.
Ah You deserves his place on any team for his name alone.
We don’t have any issues at 15 Kearney , henshaw, Payne and there’s a few wingers Zebo, Fitzgerald, Dave Kearney etc who can all play 15.
At 12 we have Darcy and we are struggling after that. Mind you there’s a few coming through that might step up by the time the World Cup comes about
Well done ireland, another good win
Mister “arsehole” fantastic has not a clue ..sexton was MOM,awarded by people who know about rugby !! He single handed for Racing to the semis !!
Ah mr blue pj ! Anyone who wears blue should get mom. No mention of the ruck inspector Heaslip ! In fact he should be sent home for having the ugliest head in S America with that hair cut !
Ah Flash, is Rathkeale that boring that you have to troll on the journal again and again. Is there any boxing match down there that you can attend?
Tell that arsehole Zebo to get his hair cut properly and get rid of his Billy D Williams moustache as well. How is Ratkeale working out for you Flash/Elrat Or whoever you are today pikey boy.
Ah my two personal stalkers Gary/Mary and that a$$bandit James from the dogging beach ! You two must spend the entire day searching sites to see if the Flash comments – very sad really – must have tiny little minds!
James how did you miss the thread on the nudist beaches??? Thought you’d be glued to that one Cupcake!!
Cannot understand how Felix Jones is either on an International or provincial side. So frustrating to watch but if consistency is key then in fairness he always fails to deliver.
Matt, a lot of top professionals coaches disagree with you. I suspect they know more about the game than you do. Maybe you should consider showing more respect to these guys who go out and give their best for country and club and then have to read inane insulting comments from guys like you who in their own lives archive very little.
Haha, that’s gas, you may be right……now be careful you don’t fall off that high-horse Mr Common Sense – conveniently faceless and anonymous…
It was vital to win the first Test in order to put us into the best possible position to win the series in Argentina. It is wonderful to have an Ireland team that is so well prepared by Joe Schmidt, John Plumtree and Les Kiss. Well done Ireland, this victory makes for a great weekend!
Sexton isn’t what he used to be, very overrated player. Shame.
Troll Dahl is here!!! Hardly worth giving the red thumb for that sort of idiocy!!
Rubbish. He’s probably the most worked player in the Irish team, and still manages tries. His kicking, however is off.
If Sexton was replaced with a cardboard cutout of kermit the frog the team would perform just as well.
F*#% off with your cardboard cut outs and that other verbal diarrhoea ur spouting mr fantastic who do you play for what’s ur credentials to run down a player who clearly deserves plaudits for brace of try’s and man of the match display for not settling for just swinging it wide or kick but driving the team forward.. just give it arrest a pull ur head out ur a*%#
Sorry Tucker, I’ll try harder to post comments which don’t upset you in future.
More importantly who would you replace him with?
I thought Ireland played well for most of the game. RegardingSexton – he gets the back line moving forward. Simple as that, great to watch. His defence is decent too
Slightly disappointing overall. The defence is quite passive. It’s good we weren’t playing NZ or SA. Joe Schmidt’s teams improve with game time though so they should be better next week. It’s a pity it’s not a 3 test series. That would allow more fluency to develop and give players more game time. Who was man of the match? I thought Diack was good
Sexton, but Diack definitely should have got it.
Zebo took his chance well and always looked dangerous going forward. His defence was better today too.
Cave played well but it has to be said he wasn’t up against much in the Argentine midfield. Still you can only play what’s in front of you and he did everything that was asked Of him.
I said here when the team was announced that I didn’t rate Felix Jones and I saw nothing today to change that.
Henderson had a good game, we’re lucky to have him with POC coming to the end of his career.
Sexton was great with ball in hand but needs to improve his kicking. Against good teams a missed kick can make the difference as we saw against the All Blacks. Still he’s the best all-around out half in the northern hemisphere.
Good win. Marmion looked good when he came on too.
Gays lol
Gays what ?
Surprised Diack butchered a overlap, he did the same against Leinster last year in the Pro 12 final when a try would have put Ulster in the driving seat. You think some coach might have had a quite word on that type of decision making.
The 3rd try scorer was Trimble not Cave….#awks #backtothecot