History suggests Ireland will rebound but more to bouncebackability ...
A week on from the deep disappointment of Ireland’s error-strewn no-show against New Zealand, Caelan Doris acknowledged his team had been given a “second chance” by head coach Andy Farrell for Friday night’s Autumn Nations Series clash with Argentina.
Recent history suggests that Ireland will rebound and redeem themselves at the Pumas’ expense at Aviva Stadium following that 23-13 defeat, just as they have done in the wake of previous losses to the All Blacks in 2022, England in last season’s Six Nations, and world champions South Africa last July.
Yet for Farrell there is more to bouncebackability than simply addressing and fixing up the numerous errors that featured in Ireland’s self-harm against Scott Robertson’s Kiwis last Friday night. That process began in a meeting room at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre last Monday but it will require the work on the training field since then to come to fruition in-game before the atonement can get underway.
Having retained all but one of his starting line-up from last weekend’s backward steps, Farrell highlighted the aspects of Ireland’s game that went missing in front of a full house that night and resulted in the loss of a proud 19-Test winning run in Dublin.
“Tactically, technically there’s always going to be something that needs to improve but having more intent,” he concluded.
“That sounds very generic but to win a top-level game like last week was and this is going to be, to just be half a second off on most things, I’m talking kick-chases, speed off the floor, reaction to something that’s not going your way, how that spills over into ill-discipline.
“The sport is a continuity sport and a lot of things have to come together to get constant pressure and we relieved that pressure and built pressure on ourselves because of the lack of continuity. So it’s a range of things really.”
Farrell has kept all but Bundee Aki in his side for their second chance against Felipe Contepomi’s resurgent Argentina. Robbie Henshaw slots in at inside centre and although there is new or newer blood on the bench in the form of Ryan Baird, Craig Casey and potential debutant Sam Prendergast stepping up and taking over from Iain Henderson, Conor Murray and Ciaran Frawley respectively, as well as a possible debut for tighthead prop Thomas Clarkson, the head coach will demand the experience accumulated by his players in their responses to those recent defeats is put to more positive use this time.
“That’s certainly been addressed. We’ve talked about that, our story, this week quite a bit. Lessons learned from those defeats have been really good for us actually in our development.
“It makes a loss that hurts a little easier to take if that’s the case so there’s a determination to make sure the same thing happens this week.
Bundee Aki is the only starter from last week who misses the starting XV against Los Pumas.“The formula, honestly, I think one of our strengths has been how open and honest we’ve been and our appetite to learn from every situation, most games. I think subconsciously people tend to be a bit more lenient when you win and harder on themselves when they lose.
We tend to be … as honest as we possibly can most weeks but I think in reality it's human nature when you're disappointed it concentrates the mind a little bit more.
“Our way, whether we've won or lost anyway is just to get people talking in small groups or a little bit bigger groups, units, as a team everything is out in the open and being honest. First and foremost, at the start of the week, it helps people recover.
“If it's out there, that if you're carrying something the recovery takes that little bit longer so once everything is out there and we start understanding then you can turn the page pretty quickly and get excited about what's coming.
"They were honest, so it was very easy to get it out of them and it certainly aligned what we were thinking as well.”
If Ireland can translate that into a much-improved performance then they are halfway to restoring some pride but Contepomi’s Pumas will have a say in that and are riding a wave under their new head coach, Leinster’s former attack coach, having beaten New Zealand, Australia and the Springboks in the recent Rugby Championship and hammered Italy 50-18 in Udine last Saturday.
Doris has taken some satisfaction in the former Leinster man’s impact since he stepped up from his role as Pumas’ attack coach to succeed Michael Cheika as the main man.
“He’s definitely gone back to their flair a little bit,” the Ireland skipper said on Thursday. “They’re playing with a lot more width. He’s a pretty creative guy. Some of the line-out plays that he would have come up with, with us, were pretty inventive. He’s quite detailed orientated as well.
“Obviously he was mainly a backs coach but he did our lineout plays and even from a forward’s perspective he would have coached me quite a bit around simple things like catch-pass and taking the ball square, and my positioning as I’m coming onto the ball and little things like that.”
“He’s also a great fella to have around. He’s a pretty charismatic guy and everyone in Leinster loved him and I’m sure he’s had the same effect in Argentina.
“Yeah, it will be exciting, seeing how they play. It’s going to be a handful but one we’re excited for.”
IRELAND: H Keenan; M Hansen, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Lowe; J Crowley, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, R Kelleher, F Bealham; J McCarthy, J Ryan; T Beirne, J van der Flier, C Doris – captain.
Replacements: C Healy, R Herring, T Clarkson, R Baird, P O’Mahony, C Casey, S Prendergast, J Osborne.
ARGENTINA: J Cruz Mallia; R Isgro, L Cinti, M Moroni, B Delguy; T Albornoz, G Bertranou; T Gallo, J Montoya, J Sclavi; G Petti, P Rubiolo; P Matera, J M Gonzalez, J Oviedo.
Replacements: I Ruiz, I Calles, F Kodela Gomez, F Molina, S Grondona, G Garcia, S Carreras, J Piccardo.
Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand).
