Jonny Sexton and Andrew Trimble scored second-half tries to help Ireland to a first Test victory in Argentina on Saturday night.
Sexton’s injury clouds Ireland’s victory over Argentina
Chris Henry also crossed in the opening period for Ireland but a leg injury to Sexton 16 minutes from time will concern the coach, Joe Schmidt, before next weekend’s second Test at Tucumán.
“It was very hard going, we knew it was going to be physical which it was. We didn’t know we were going to be as inaccurate as we were. We put a lot of balls down and missed some tackles,” the Ireland captain, Paul O’Connell said. “They put us under a lot of pressure, I think the result is great but the performance is disappointing.”
O’Connell admitted the key now is to put in a good week’s work before the sides meet again.
“You look at what England did going down to New Zealand putting in a big performance against them, that’s what we needed to do and we didn’t do that. This gives us something to work on now and something to review over the next few days and knowing Joe Schmidt it will be a very tough review and hopefully our performance will improve next week.”
After a lively opening 10 minutes at Resistencia, the tourists made the first impact when Gabriel Ascárate was penalised for breaking the offside line, and Sexton made no mistake from the left-hand side. From the restart Ireland were guilty of handing easy field position to their hosts when Trimble knocked on, but Greg Feek would have been thrilled to see his scrum demolish the Argentinians on their ball and the resultant penalty released the pressure.
Eight minutes after he gave his side the lead, Sexton doubled that advantage to 6-0 when the Ulster duo of Darren Cave and Luke Marshall linked up well for a line-break in midfield and the scrambling Argentinian defence was forced into the concession of a penalty.
The Argentina challenge was dented when their No8, Benjamin Macone, was sent to the sin-bin in the 29th minute when he took Trimble out in the air, but despite their numerical inferiority, the home side stunned Ireland when Sánchez’s smart break sent Manuel Montero clear to score in the corner.
Sánchez converted to give Argentina a 10-6 lead, but Ireland hit back immediately when O’Connell got the maul rolling five metres from the line and Henry dotted down. Sexton missed the tricky conversion from the left but Ireland would have been happy to escape the half by leading 11-10.
Three minutes after the restart Sexton rounded off a super team move to bag his side’s second try. The move stemmed from a fine lineout steal from the debutant Robbie Diack, and after a powerful break from Jordi Murphy, Sexton linked up splendidly with Marshall to score an unconverted try on the right.
And just short of the hour mark, Ireland put the result beyond any doubt when Trimble intercepted Sánchez’s looping pass on halfway and had the easiest of tasks to canter home unopposed for a third Irish try.
Sexton slotted the conversion but he soon limped off with a leg injury, while his replacement, Ian Madigan, slotted two late penalties to gloss the victory as Tomás de la Vega crossed for a late Argentina consolation.
