Argentina 16 Ireland 0:These two Test defeats will remain footnotes in history and merely continue a winless record in Argentina dating back to 1952. Yet in failing to register a point at Test level for the first time since the Battle of Pretoria at Loftus Versfeld in the summer of 1998, Ireland came well short of what they were capable of in the José Amalfitani Stadium on Saturday.
This Irish team played like what they were, an inexperienced outfit cobbled together at a week's notice, away from home against limited but ultra-efficient opposition.
That said, they had enough ball to win two matches, but the game drifted away from them when they thrice opted for five-metre scrums during a 12-minute bout of pressure in the second quarter which culminated in Jeremy Staunton posting the first of three penalty misses.
Despite a good-sized crowd estimated at 28,000, the atmosphere was nothing compared to the din generated by the Velez Sarsfield fans the previous evening when the ground was filled to its 50,000 capacity.
Admittedly, there was again some high-spirited dancing and chanting in response to the best, and irritating, efforts of the PA announcer-cum-cheerleader, but save for the exultant late try and victory celebrations, the din was at its loudest when Staunton addressed his kicks.
Whether that was connected to Staunton missing three from three - a long-ranger, an eminently kickable one and one difficult but kickable one into the breeze - only he will really know, but given his build-up to this game, you feared it. Amid similar hostility in this city seven years ago, David Humphreys missed easier ones, and, as predictably, the dead-eyed if comparatively ponderous Federico Todeschini landed four from five.
Staunton's distribution, tackling and running were good, but his performance, like that of his team, would have been viewed differently had he kept them in touch on the scoreboard. Ditto had cooler heads prevailed when Ireland encamped on the hosts' line.
Frankie Sheahan maintained repeatedly opting for scrums rather than go for the lineout in the corner during that 12-minute bout of pressure was the correct decision. He also gave a revealing insight into the front-row mindset in the heat of battle: "From their point of view it would have been seen as a cop-out and it would have been a little psychological victory for them."
Sheahan also maintained the third penalty of that phase against the Pumas was "a penalty try not awarded to us. In the third-last scrum they folded underneath us after we got the second push-on. It was a penalty try, full stop. It should have been seven-three at half-time as opposed to coming in six-nil down."
Maybe so, but somehow you felt were a referee to award a penalty try against Los Pumas in Buenos Aires he would need to have left the engine running. And a pushover try was even more fanciful. It may have been a cop-out of sorts, but a lineout offered a far greater probability of a try.
The more the match wore on, the more Ireland got stuck in the Pumas' vice-like defensive grip. In perhaps the quote of the tour, Sheahan observed, "They're called the Pumas but they should be called the hyenas.
"There are certain parts of the Irish game that are quite good, with regard to mauling or something like that, but the minute somebody hits the deck two or three of them are just all over the ball. They're all as good as Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy at getting into that poaching position, and credit to them, they obviously spend a lot of time working on it, and it's an area we could spend more time working on it.
"If the ball carrier gets any way isolated, there's a good chance he'll get turned over, or give away a penalty."
Or, he might have added, that Eoin Reddan will have to burrow for torturously slow ball.
Kelvin Deaker was, at the very least, selective in penalising tacklers who didn't roll away and in enforcing the offside line. These are the two basics of good refereeing, and by doing neither adequately, he ensured a scrappy mess of a game. And that all suited the Pumas just dandy.
The Pumas brought little to the party, but then that was as expected. As has been the way under Marcelo Loffreda, sometimes even with flair players such as Felipe Contepomi, Juan Hernandez and Ignacio Corletto, no team in Test rugby recycles the ball seemingly for the sake of it, awaiting penalty opportunities, with such stultifying efficiency as the Pumas.
They ain't the Harlem Globetrotters of world rugby, and once again they showed themselves to be mightily efficient, though you wonder whether those gamebreakers enjoy this stuff.
Their defence was excellent. Competing for the ball at the tackle area so well enabled them to limit the numbers to the breakdown, and so they fanned out. Whenever penetrated, they covered seemingly in waves, content to wait for penalties.
The wind picked up when they had second use of it and with Ireland unable to clear their lines or cut loose from deep, off scrum pressure Manuel Contepomi slipped through Brian Carney, Reddan and Neil Best on the blind side for the coup de grâce.
"We are proud of the team," said the elder Contepomi. "Generally it's very difficult to find in a Test match that a team finishes without getting points. That talks very well of Argentina.
"Obviously it wasn't the best match to watch, but we were very effective and our strategy that was planned was done perfectly well."
Hard to watch, and harder to play against. Winning colours everything though, and these Pumas, like all their brethren, know how to win.
But like Ireland, they'll bring more to the Coupe du Monde than this.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 8 mins: Todeschini pen 3-0; 40: Todeschini pen 6-0 (half-time 6-0); 57: Todeschini pen 9-0; 81: Contepomi try, Todeschini con 16-0.
ARGENTINA: Federico Serra (San Isidro); Tomas de Vedia (Saracens), Hernan Senillosa (Hindu), Manuel Contepomi (Rovigo), Francisco Leonelli (Glasgow Warriors); Federico Todeschini (Montpellier), Nicolas Fernandez Miranda (Bayonne); Marcos Ayerza (Leicester Tigers), Pablo Gambarini (CASI), Santiago Gonzalez Bonorino (Capitolina); Esteban Lozada (CASI), Rimas Alvarez Kareilis (Perpignan); Martin Durand (Montpellier, capt), Juan Manuel Leguizamon (London Irish), Juan Fernandez Lobbe (Sale). Replacements: Eusebio Guinazu (Agen) for Bonorino (67 mins), Pablo Bouza (Leeds Tykes) for Lozada (70 mins), Martin Schusterman (Leeds Tykes) for Durand (75 mins). Not used: Pablo Henn (Montauban), Nicolas Vergallo (Jockey Club Rosario), Juan Fernandez Miranda (Hindu), Horacio Agulla (Hindu).
IRELAND: Geordan Murphy (Leicester Tigers); Brian Carney (Munster), Barry Murphy (Munster), Gavin Duffy (Connacht), Rob Kearney (Leinster); Jeremy Staunton (Wasps), Eoin Reddan (Wasps); Bryan Young (Ulster), Frankie Sheahan (Munster), Simon Best (Ulster, capt); Leo Cullen (Leicester Tigers), Mick O'Driscoll (Munster); Alan Quinlan (Munster), Shane Jennings (Leicester), Stephen Ferris (Ulster).
Replacements: Neil Best (Ulster) for Ferris (48 mins), Malcolm O'Kelly (Leinster) for O'Driscoll (55 mins), Kieran Lewis (Leinster) for B Murphy (68 mins), Bernard Jackman (Leinster) for Sheahan, Tony Buckley (Munster) for Young (both 75 mins). Not used: Isaac Boss (Ulster).
Referee: Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand).
