The 2017 GUINNESS Series comes to a fascinating climax when Ireland and Argentina meet for the first time since the 2015 Rugby World Cup quarter-final. It will be a proud day for Kill native Adam Byrne as he becomes Ireland’s fourth debutant of the series.
2017 GUINNESS SERIES MATCH: Saturday, November 25
IRELAND v ARGENTINA, Aviva Stadium, 5.30pm (live RTE Two/www.rte.ie/live (ROI only)/Sky Sports Main Event/RTE Radio 1/IRFU Live Blog)
Team News: Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has finalised the starting line-up for their final GUINNESS Series Test against Argentina at the Aviva Stadium. Leinster’s Adam Byrne will make his debut on the right wing.
The selected side shows three changes to the one that defeated South Africa 38-3 at the start of the GUINNESS Series, with Andrew Conway, injured centre Robbie Henshaw and Devin Toner all missing out.
Conway, the man-of-the-match against Fiji last Saturday, and Toner are included on the bench, but Henshaw is sidelined for the renewal of rivalries with the Pumas owing to the hamstring strain he sustained in training earlier this week.
Henshaw’s absence sees Munster’s Chris Farrell retain his starting place at outside centre, having made his debut against the flying Fijians. He will pair up with Connacht star Bundee Aki who won his first cap in the Springboks game.
The 23-year-old Byrne gets his opportunity to impress in the green jersey, becoming the fourth debutant back of the series. He is the second graduate of the Ireland Men’s Sevens programme to play at Test level, after Rory O’Loughlin was capped against Japan in June.
Left winger Jacob Stockdale will make his fourth start since June, with the back-line book-ended again by the experienced trio of Rob Kearney, Jonathan Sexton and Conor Murray, who have an impressive 202 Ireland caps between them.
Captaining his country for the 21st time, Rory Best resumes in the front row alongside in-form props Cian Healy and Tadhg Furlong. Powering the engine room will be 21-year-old Leinster second row James Ryan, who comes in for his first start and fourth cap, and Iain Henderson.
The highly-rated Ryan becomes Ireland’s youngest starting lock of the professional era, edging out Bob Casey (2000) and Kieran Treadwell (2017), who were also 21. The 2017 Lions trio of Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien and CJ Stander, who captained Ireland during the closing stages against Fiji, form the back row combination again.
Schmidt’s bench options include the aforementioned Toner and Conway, as well as Ian Keatley, who landed two crucial penalties last Saturday, and Luke McGrath. The other reserve forward berths are filled by Rhys Ruddock, James Tracy, Dave Kilcoyne and John Ryan, the Munster prop who has successfully rehabbed a calf injury.
Schmidt commented: “Adam Byrne has given us the confidence to include him. He is picking up information all the time and with experience around him, I hope he gets a good hit-out.
“It will be a challenging day for the outside backs, three of the four only have five caps between them. We’ve always had new blood coming in. It was exaggerated during the summer with the Lions tour and older players missing out. We are casting the net reasonably wide.”
“If we’re looking two years backwards (to the 2015 World Cup quarter-final against Argentina), how are we looking forwards? There’s a danger in looking back because how can we learn? There are only half-a-dozen survivors from that game.
“We will be focusing on ourselves rather than Argentina. They are much changed as well. We want to get something out of this game because it is tight heading into the Six Nations and we can see how the other home nations are doing well.”
Asked about Henshaw’s injury, he explained: “At a push, Robbie could have potentially been involved but it should see him fine for what is coming up (with Leinster). This window is ideal for us to see guys in pressurised situations and after Chris (Farrell) did well last weekend, this is another opportunity for him.”
Meanwhile, Argentina head coach Daniel Hourcade has made three changes to the team to play Ireland in the final match of the Pumas’ November tour.
Ramiro Moyano and Matias Moroni return on the right wing and at outside centre respectively, with Sebastian Cancelliere, who scored the first try in Argentina’s 31-15 win over Italy last weekend, and Matias Orlando both making way.
The only change to the side the Pumas fielded in their 21-8 loss to England a fortnight ago is Nicolas Sanchez’s inclusion at out-half. He continues in the number 10 jersey this week with 74-cap veteran Juan Martin Hernandez nursing a knee injury from the Italy game.
Tomas Lezana comes back in at number 8 after flying home to Buenos Aires last week following the death of his grandmother. Juan Manuel Leguizamon drops back to the bench, with the all-Jaguares XV captained by hooker Agustin Creevy, one of 12 survivors from the Pumas’ matchday squad when they last met Ireland two years ago.
The seven retained starters from their memorable 43-20 Rugby World Cup quarter-final triumph over Ireland in Cardiff are Joaquin Tuculet, Moroni and half-backs Sanchez and Martin Landajo behind the scrum, along with skipper Creevy, lock Tomas Lavanini and flanker Pablo Matera.
Having ended a seven-match losing streak with that three-try success in Florence last time out, Pumas head coach Daniel Hourcade said: “(Ireland) are a totally different team (compared to 2015). They are one of the teams that has progressed most in the last three years. Ireland are a very hard team for you to break down, they have a very good scrum, very good set piece…probably one of the hardest teams to play in the world.
“We are disappointed we didn’t get an important win against any top team (in 2017), so it would be excellent to finish the season with a win against Ireland. But with Ireland it might not be so easy, they are playing well.”
IRELAND: Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster); Adam Byrne (UCD/Leinster), Chris Farrell (Young Munster/Munster), Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht), Jacob Stockdale (Ballynahinch/Ulster); Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster); Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster), Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) (capt), Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster), James Ryan (UCD/Leinster), Iain Henderson (Ballynahinch/Ulster), Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster), Sean O’Brien (UCD/Leinster), CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster).
Replacements: James Tracy (UCD/Leinster), Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster), John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster), Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster), Rhys Ruddock (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster), Ian Keatley (Young Munster/Munster), Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster).
ARGENTINA: Joaquin Tuculet (Jaguares); Ramiro Moyano (Jaguares), Matias Moroni (Jaguares), Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias (Jaguares), Emiliano Boffelli (Jaguares); Nicolas Sanchez (Jaguares), Martin Landajo (Jaguares); Santiago Garcia Botta (Jaguares), Agustin Creevy (Jaguares) (capt), Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro (Jaguares), Matias Alemanno (Jaguares), Tomas Lavanini (Jaguares), Pablo Matera (Jaguares), Marcos Kremer (Jaguares), Tomas Lezana (Jaguares).
Replacements: Julian Montoya (Jaguares), Lucas Noguera (Jaguares), Enrique Pieretto (Jaguares), Guido Petti (Jaguares), Juan Manuel Leguizamon (Jaguares), Gonzalo Bertranou (Jaguares), Jeronimo de la Fuente (Jaguares), Sebastian Cancelliere (Hindu).
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)
Assistant Referees: Marius Mitrea (Italy), Mike Adamson (Scotland)
Television Match Official: David Grashoff (England)
Match Odds (Paddy Power): Ireland to win: 1/9; Draw: 33/1; Argentina to win: 7/1
Pre-Match Quotes: Rory Best (Ireland) – “When we talk about World Cups, Six Nations and stuff that’s way over there, you lose sight of what’s in front of you. It’s something we’ve been good at – but it’s also something we can get better at. Always, the here and now is important.
“The big thing for us is to show that consistency. We’ve asked for that consistency going forward more than any other year in my captaincy and this game will be a big challenge to see if we can deliver that.
“If we can take another step down that route, then you go into the Six Nations with a bit of confidence from the performances here, and go, ‘this is what we achieve with our performances when we’re consistent, now here’s another competition to take that into’.
“Along the way (between Ireland and Argentina) there’s probably been a couple of higher profile games, mainly World Cups – even stretching back before my time. And that has probably added a little to those games because they are the high profile games, one in every four years.
“Whenever you play any of the top nations, you want to beat them and you know it will be very, very difficult. You need to perform against them and Argentina are no different. They, over the last 10 years, have improved out of sight as a rugby nation.”
Agustin Creevy (Argentina) – “We hope to change that run, knowing that we have never won here. We feel we can make history but we know Ireland are in one of their best moments ever. Probably it will be a more than interesting game for us. We are used to playing more and more games every year because of the calendar we have.
“For us, there’s a big motivation to play this game, considering what playing against Ireland means to us, more so than this being the last game of the season. I don’t know why there is a spiky rivalry between the two teams. The World Cup games were big moments and important games.
“Ireland have had to fight and work really hard to be where they are in terms of rankings, and we are the same. Perhaps that’s why we are at similar levels. And it’s important to me, because my surname is Irish! A distant relative contacted my grandfather through Facebook, so we do still have some contact with Ireland. It’s not close, but there are links there. So it means a lot to be here.
“We have played better against Ireland at World Cups but we’ve been unable to do it here. It would be great to repeat what we managed in 2015 here, it would be very important given the context of where we are and that we haven’t been getting results recently. And also it’s a chance to win where we never have before, and also beat a team like Ireland that we respect a lot.”
Pre-Match Links –
Head-To-Head: Ireland v Argentina
Irish Rugby TV: Jacob Stockdale On Learning In The Ireland Squad
Irish Rugby TV: Ireland 23 Fiji 20 – Match Highlights
Recent Meetings –
2014: Summer Tour First Test: Argentina 17 Ireland 29, Estadio Centenario, Resistencia
2014: Summer Tour Second Test: Argentina 17 Ireland 23, Estadio José Fierro, Tucumán
2015: Rugby World Cup Quarter-Final: Ireland 20 Argentina 43, Millennium Stadium
Support Ireland on www.irishrugby.ie/facebook or search #TeamOfUs, #ShouldertoShoulder and #IREvARG on www.twitter.com/irishrugby.
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