Confabs under the Millennium Stadium posts. A shocking indictment of a team that struggled to get off the ropes.
One of the most baffling aspects of Ireland’s chastening defeat was the lack of line-speed they had, in defence, and the penalties they conceded at the breakdown.
While the numbers suggest Ireland won more rucks than Argentina [93 to 89 at a better percentage], Argentina made hay here when it counted.
Argentina got off their line at pace and with power.
Joe Schmidt name-dropped five Argentine players that won collisions and drew in green shirts only for the ball to be recycled cleanly.
He said, “Because we had to put more guys into tackles, we had numbers down [elsewhere]. That makes it very hard to get off the line and leaves space on the edge. They got that at times.”
“We had some guys going up,” Schmidt added, “and other guys going ‘We haven’t got enough guys to do this with. We better back off”.
“We were up, we were back and we were sideways. They made the very most of that.”
Schmidt admitted it took Ireland ’15 or 20 minutes’ to reassert the game-plan and get their act together. “Unfortunately,” he remarked, “those huddles were beneath the posts.”
Heaslip commented, “I thought it was going to be a big battle and it was. The way they look for mismatches makes it difficult; out wide and down the channels. They are also very abrasive around the ruck.
“As Joe talked about. To go 17-0 down in the game is tough.
“You have to get the collective together and get back in the game, which we did, and at 23-20 with a kick [to level the match] it could have been a very different game.
“But when you are chasing the game against a side like that, who are so well organised and have threats out wide that can punish you, it is always going to be quite hard.
“You saw that in the way they took their tries at the end of the game.”
