Test Match Preview – Ireland vs Argentina

Rugby’s final all-Tier 1 contest of 2021 will take place in Dublin, Ireland on Sunday. The men in green play host to Los Pumas in what is one of rugby’s greatest rivalries at World Cups. The teams go in to the fixture ranked 4th and 8th in the world respectively.

Ireland are coming off a remarkable performance. The Irish were 29-20 winners over New Zealand last Saturday. Also played in Dublin, the contest saw New Zealand beaten not only on the scoreboard but with regularity in the tackle area, set-piece and breakdown.

The sensational 80 minutes of rugby played by Ireland took its toll. Captain Jonathan Sexton will miss Sunday’s match against New Zealand as will Maori All Black Jamison Gibson-Park. The outcome is a double change at scrum-half and fly-half against Argentina.

No Sexton sees James Ryan leading the team. Ryan will captain Ireland from the second-row. It is far from being his first time in charge of an Irish team. The Leinster lock captained Ireland u20s in 2015–16. Ryan joins Iain Henderson as the tall timber to face Los Pumas.

The vacant halves position go to Conor Murray and Joey Carbery. Murray replaces Gibson-Park and Carbery starts in place of Sexton. The remaining change from the win over New Zealand sees Robbie Henshaw returning to start together with Gary Ringrose in the centers.

Argentina’s side also sees movement. Mario Ledesma has made three changes from the side that enjoyed a good outcome against Italy. First, Marcos Kremer moves from second-row to flanker with line-out specialist Guido Petti fit-again the start. Kremer replaces rookie Juan Martín González who drops out of the 23.

The second change sees a first start of 2021 for Santiago Grondona. He joins Kremer and Pablo Matera in the back-row. Matera moves to N8 with Facundo Isa dropping to the replacements. Finally, Lucio Cinti will start, not at center, but on the wing with Santiago Cordero missing out.

Replacement props Ignacio Calles and Eduardo Bello will earn their second caps. They and all other Pumas in the 23 play their rugby in Europe. Facundo Cordero will make his test debut from the bench. At the other end of the spectrum Argentina’s most capped player, Nicolás Sánchez will earn his 93rd cap in what is to be his 7th cap against Ireland.

An Argentine win in Dublin would be historic. Ireland have won all prior nine test matches against Argentina on home soil. Los Pumas’ winless record in Ireland was almost ended in November 2004. A late drop-goal gave Ireland a 21-19 win.

The overall results read in Ireland’s favor. The first of 18 test matches between the countries took place in 1990. Prior to that there were five matches that Ireland considers non-capped. They date back to 1952. Combined, Ireland has 14 wins compared to Argentina’s record of 8 victories. The teams competed to a 3-3 draw in 1952.

The most recent fixture between the teams was during Mario Ledesma’s first year in charge. Ireland were 28-17 winners in November 2018. At the time Ireland were ranked no 2 in the world.

IRELAND
1 Andrew Porter, 2 Ronan Kelleher, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 4 Iain Henderson, 5 James Ryan (capt.), 6 Caelan Doris, 7 Josh van der Flier, 8 Jack Conan, 9 Conor Murray, 10 Joey Carbery, 11 James Lowe, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 13 Garry Ringrose, 14 Robert Baloucoune, 15 Hugo Keenan

Replacements: 16 Dan Sheehan, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Tom O’Toole, 19 Tadhg Beirne, 20 Peter O’Mahony, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Harry Byrne, 23 Keith Earls

ARGENTINA
1 Thomas Gallo, 2 Julián Montoya, 3 Francisco Gómez Kodela, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 6 Santiago Grondona, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Pablo Matera, 9 Tomás Cubelli, 10 Santiago Carreras, 11 Lucio Cinti 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 13 Matías Moroni, 14 Mateo Carreras, 15 Emiliano Boffelli

Replacements: 16 Facundo Bosch, 17 Ignacio Calles, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Lucas Paulos, 20 Facundo Isa, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Nicolás Sánchez, 23 Facundo Cordero

Date: Sunday, November 21
Kick-Off: 2:15pm (Ireland); 11:15am (Argentina)
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland
Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
Assistant Referees: Adam Leal (England); Christophe Ridley (England)
TMO: Tom Foley (England)

RECENT RESULTS
2018-11-10 – Ireland 28, Argentina 17 (Dublin, Ireland)
2017-11-25 – Ireland 28, Argentina 19 (Dublin, Ireland)
2015-10-18 – Ireland 20, Argentina 43 (Cardiff, Wales)
2014-06-14 – Argentina 17, Ireland 29 (Tucumán, Argentina)
2014-06-07 – Argentina 17, Ireland 23 (Resistencia, Argentina)
2012-11-24 – Ireland 46, Argentina 24 (Dublin, Ireland)
2010-11-28 – Ireland 29, Argentina 9 (Dublin, Ireland)
2008-11-22 – Ireland 17, Argentina 3 (Dublin, Ireland)
2007-09-30 – Ireland 15, Argentina 30 (Paris, France)
2007-06-02 – Argentina 16, Ireland 0 (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
2007-05-26 – Argentina 22, Ireland 20 (Santa Fé, Argentina)