Ireland missing killer instinct

A curious one, and one that definitely got away. Ireland had a more effective and ambitious running game, and had they taken their chances might well have had the game won when the Pumas came knocking in the final quarter, or at any rate had a buffer.

But the Pumas weren't nearly so profligate and hence won with almost misleading ease on the scoreboard.

Though the absence of Brian O'Driscoll and Denis Hickie was felt to have blunted their cutting edge, in fact the Irish backs created space and openings with remarkable regularity, and looked far quicker and more inventive than their counterparts.

If anything, the Irish forwards and the inside backs occasionally overcooked things.

Although Ireland's game was made to look positively expansive when set against the narrower ambit of Argentina's predictably one-dimensional tactics for more than an hour, the home side were probably a little too narrow for their own good themselves.

Even so, indicative of the new-found confidence in Irish back play - after just two sessions with a remodelled back-line - was the cleverly worked set-piece move off the tail and the top-of-the-line after half an hour.

David Humphreys worked a dummy scissors with Kevin Maggs and floated a lovely, long skip pass to Rob Henderson, who released Justin Bishop on his left shoulder. Had Shane Horgan, looping round, not fractionally over-run the pass he would have sauntered home from fully 30 metres without a bother.

It was a cracking move, worked assiduously in training by Eddie O'Sullivan on Tuesday and Wednesday, which provides a couple of options off Henderson and it would have been a try from the top drawer.

It would also have made it 10-5 at a time when Ireland were much the better team, holding their own well enough in the scrums and secure in the lineout. Little blame could be attached to Horgan, who had a big game and was unperturbed by having a deep gash in his forehead from a bloody wound just before halftime.

Other chances went abegging too, and both Rob Henderson and Mick Galwey were over the Puma line - though the former was adamant that he had touched it down.

That had come in between well-worked post-interval tries for Justin Bishop and Henderson, as Ireland upped the tempo and threatened to kill the game off, while the second incident came soon after and, at 15-11, was possibly the turning point of the game.

Having forced a five-metre scrum, Simon Easterby (who had moved to number eight in the absence of Anthony Foley) picked up, ran hard and wide to suck in the fringe defence, and quick support from the back row ensured ideal second-phase ball.

Galwey took Peter Stringer's popped pass, with frustrated backs queuing up with a big overlap and screaming for the ball, and went for the line. Realising that he wasn't going to make it, Galwey is adamant that he laid the ball back, but somehow Andre Watson decreed a knock-on. From the scrum, Watson awarded the Pumas the first of three successive penalties, which culminated in Quesada making it 15-14. Hence, the failure to convert those chances, coupled with a nightmare place-kicking day in the cauldron of a stadium for David Humphreys, saw a further 14 points go adrift.

Normally such a reliable kicker, Humphreys missed a kickable first conversion to Malcolm O'Kelly's close-range try, and then screwed a 20-metre penalty fractionally to the left of the posts as the din intensified.

For all Ireland's greater potency, which became even more marked after the resumption when they added another two tries, Humprheys' earlier misses created doubts not only in his own mind.

Sure enough, he missed his first five kicks and the bottom line is that you can hardly ever win a front-rank international without a place-kicker.

The Pumas probably couldn't believe their luck when their line escaped once more after a post-interval pummelling, and, despite being outscored by three tries to one, found themselves only 15-11 and then 15-14 adrift. If they couldn't believe their luck, they nevertheless made the most of it.

A torrent of penalties went against Ireland and, by contrast, Gonzalo Quesada then started to find his range with a regularity that demoralised Ireland and encouraged his team-mates and supporters alike.

Home advantage was always likely to be a very big factor in a tight finish and, sure enough, when it came to the crunch there was no doubting who deserved to win it.

Argentina outscored Ireland by 23-8 in the final half-hour, scoring 17 unanswered points between the 75th and 80th minutes. Mistakes having been a contributory factor to the sudden deluge, it was almost eerily reminiscent of some of the bad old collapses. The Italian defeat three years ago springs to mind.

But given fitness levels and mental staying power have improved so much of late, one can only deduce there was a fatigue factor - mental as much as physical. This is hardly surprising given recent exertions culminated in Munster's European Cup run, and most of all that anti-climax coupled with Ireland's exacting one-point defeat last Sunday to the Barbarians.

The tormentor-in-chief was Agustin Pichot, who orchestrated much of the close-in drives, kept the Irish fringe defence on the back foot with his wristiness and vision, sniped up the blind side tellingly about four times with deft little grubbers - two of which were finished off stealthily by Octavio Bartolucci. To the latter's finishing, throw in Quesada's metronomic accuracy, and the Pumas were ultimately far more clinical.

It was a tough upgrade for David Wallace and Peter McKenna especially. Yet many had played well, not least Humphreys (in his general play), Maggs, Henderson and Horgan, and up front the work-rate of Malcolm O'Kelly, Keith Wood, Peter Clohessy and Simon Easterby ensured spells of superiority and general parity.

There was no shame in losing to these Pumas, least of all in their own fortress, and Ireland had looked the better team for much of the match. But then again, all that only made it worse.

Scoring sequence: 13 mins: Bartolucci try 5-0; 23: O'Kelly try 5-5; 40: Quesada pen 8-5; 45: Bishop try 8-10; 49: Quesada pen 11-10; 50: Henderson try 11-15; 64: Quesada pen 14-15; 69: Quesada pen 17-15; 72: Humphreys pen 17-18; 75: Mendez try, Quesada con 24-18; 79: Quesada pen 27-18; 80: Bartolucci try, Quesada con 34-18; 83: Bishop try 34-23.

ARGENTINA: I Corletto; O Bartolucci, E Simone, J Fernandez Miranda, D Albanese; G Quesada, A Pichot (capt); M Reggiardo, F Mendez, M Scelzo, A Allub, I Fernandez Lobbe, S Phelan, G Longo, R Martin. Replacements: F Contepomi for Simone (70 mins).

IRELAND: P McKenna; S Horgan, R Henderson, K Maggs, J Bishop; D Humphreys, P Stringer; P Clohessy, K Wood (capt), J Hayes, M Galwey, M O'Kelly, S Easterby, A Foley, D Wallace. Replacements: M Mullins for Horgan (temp 38-40 mins), A Ward for Foley (52 mins), Fitzpatrick for Hayes (65 mins), Mullins for McKenna (76 mins), O'Gara for Humphreys (81 mins).

Referee: A Watson (South Africa).