Relief for Kidney as Ireland scalp visiting Pumas

Date Published: {J}

DECLAN Kidney was surely a relieved man after Ireland’s comprehensive victory over bitter foes Argentina in their final match of the Autumn International series at the Aviva Stadium last Sunday. Having only recorded one win in the team’s seven previous outings, the Irish coach was coming under some pressure and badly needed

encouragement to take into the  Six Nations campaign next  Spring.

Having guided Munster to two Heineken Cup triumphs and Ireland to only the country’s second ever Grand Slam in 2009, Kidney has obviously still a fair amount of ‘credit’ left in his coaching balance sheet, but the Cork native has been struggling to get the balance right in his team selections recently and has also shown too much loyalty to players who are clearly past it at international level.

On top of a bad run of results and typically uninspiring media briefings, Kidney must have been feeling the heat in advance of hosting the abrasive Pumas who had performed adequately against the French the previous weekend.

The initial exchanges, however, were not encouraging as a ground devouring Argentinean maul led  to them being camped on the  Irish line, but they were unable  to engineer that precious touchdown.

The opening ten minutes asked serious questions of Ireland, but they hung in there and, gradually, Brian O’Driscoll and company lifted the siege. Jonathan Sexton, who was in fine kicking form, put the home team in front with a converted penalty before Tommy Bowe and Jamie Heaslip combined to send the teak-tough Stephen Ferris over the Argentina line in the 20th minute. Sexton converted and quickly added another routine penalty to put the men in green 13-0 clear.

Ireland eventually retired in a commanding position, 19-3 ahead, but it was a flattering scoreline as Felipe Contepomi had fluffed two penalties and a drop goal attempt in the opening 40 minutes. The former Leinster out half missed another one early on the resumption as his brittle temperament was again plain to see.

Unfortunately, Ireland failed to drive on in the second-half as Argentina began to dominate possession and territory. They had the Irish under serious pressure, but poor handling, unforced errors and a lack of penetration behind the scrum resulted in them rarely threatening the opposition line. The match was now providing little in the way of entertainment for the perishing crowd of over 30,000 and only a magnificent opportunist try from the excellent Gordon D’Arcy in injury time lifted the gloom.

The previous weekend Ireland had lost by 20 points to New Zealand, but supporters and pundits were reasonably content with the performance; last Saturday they won by 20 points, yet those same observers were not nearly as positive. Sometimes, a team can be perceived to ‘lose’ in the public’s mind when they actually win. True, Argentina are in transition while France’s hammering by Australia last Saturday showed the Pumas’ performance against Les Blues a week previously in a far different light, but Ireland were in dire need of a result at the weekend and they got it.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.