Hugo Keenan hat-trick fuels six-try Ireland win over Argentina

Hugo Keenan scored a hat-trick as Ireland, playing at home, produced a six-try victory over Argentina in the opener to November’s international window of the Nations Championship. Mateo Carreras crossed twice for the Pumas on a dry, mild night with little wind.

There has never been much affection between Ireland and Argentina, a rivalry intensified by physical World Cup encounters, and next year’s tournament in Australia provided context to this meeting with a realistic chance of the pair meeting again in the knockout stages. The conditions promised fewer stoppages and the match delivered steady rugby; a recent source of discomfort for Ireland — the scrum — was not a problem on the night. Ireland set out to work patiently through phases and, when successful, found space; at other moments their approaches stalled.

Argentina struck early through Mateo Carreras, who finished from a Tomás Albornoz crosskick just 11 minutes in, out-jumping Craig Casey to claim the ball. Carreras then thought he had scored again from a misdirected crosskick by Sam Prendergast a few minutes later, but that opportunity did not come to fruition. Despite those threats, Ireland steadily probed and began to find effective entry points into the Argentine defence.

Robert Baloucoune supplied important broken-field contributions while Mack Hansen was heavily marked by the visitors’ defence. The Pumas suffered a difficult second quarter: captain Julián Montoya left the field with a head injury, centre Justo Piccardo was shown a yellow card, and replacement hooker Leonel Oviedo went off for a head-injury assessment, briefly raising the prospect of uncontested scrums until loosehead Mayco Vivas was cleared to hook.

The scoring opened with a well-worked interchange that created Hugo Keenan’s first try, and Dan Sheehan added a score from the second wave of an attack off a lineout inside Argentina’s 22. Sam Prendergast converted all available kicks, and Ireland led 21-5 at half-time, leaving Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi with work to do during the interval.

Two minutes into the second half Prendergast created an opening for himself and finished the move to add another try, underlining his finishing impact despite ongoing scrutiny of his athleticism and defence. By just before the hour mark Ireland had accounted for six tries in total, at which point the bench was used more for rotation and checklist purposes than necessity.

The defeat leaves Felipe Contepomi and his new coaching partners, Shaun Edwards and Mario Ledesma, with a significant task over the next fortnight and beyond. Ireland will take satisfaction from a comprehensive win, knowing that an altogether tougher challenge is just around the corner.