Coach Andy Farrell says Ireland still have work to do despite their 42-12 thrashing of Argentina in Dublin on Friday night.
The Irish ran in six tries, with fullback Hugo Keenan grabbing a hat-trick, to move to the top of the Nations Championship northern hemisphere standings.
“First and foremost, delighted to get the win and a good win at that,” Farrell said. “Six tries to two says a lot. So delighted to get the season off with a big W.”
Farrell had said in the lead-up to the match that he felt the Irish, in their present state, were not contenders to win next year’s World Cup – a tournament they have yet to even reach the semi-finals.
The 51-year-old Englishman did not repeat that after Friday’s Test but he said there were things they needed to work on.
“How we can be a little bit more ruthless because that’s the team that we want to be,” he said.
Farrell, though, said all in all “it’s a good place to be”.
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Keenan may have taken the Man of the Match award and the back slapping from his teammates but the 30-year-old fullback is never one to blow his own trumpet.
“It was at the end of a few good plays, to be honest,” he said of his three tries. “Three walk-ins, I think.
“So I’ll take any to be honest, but we got a bonus point playing against a really tough Argentinian side, to beat them by 30 points and probably not play to our full potential is exciting because there’s a lot to work on.”
Lock Tadhg Beirne said “it was a great starting point” but like Farrell and Keenan saw plenty of room for improvement.
“I think we were very good in patches, and I think some of the tries we scored were proper team tries, which will be probably the most pleasing part about it,” he said.
“But I think we’ll probably be walking away from that game with the feeling we could have gotten a lot more out of it in terms of scores, so there was some good parts for sure, but there was certainly a lot of parts that need to be better.”
Ireland next play Fiji, before their biggest challenge, against the world champion Springboks, on 21 November.
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Meanwhile, Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi has had little time with his players and he said it showed in Dublin.
“Well, to start with, 30 points,” said the 49-year-old. “And then I think the Irish were a more cohesive and slick team, and we made a lot of individual errors.
“I’m very proud of the boys. The way they pushed, they tried, and they came out and kept running. But it’s tough when you defend too much against a team that is is very good with ball in hand.”
However, he took some positives out of the match.
“Well, the initiative, how they went out straight out of the blocks and then there was some good rugby,” said Contepomi.
“The attitude. I think the players were fantastic, the way we got together in four days, put up a performance in a Test match against the third-placed team in the world.”
Contepomi’s side go on to play Italy and Six Nations champions France.
– AFP
Photo: Ramsey Cardy/Getty Images
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Coach Andy Farrell says Ireland still have work to do despite their 42-12 thrashing of Argentina in Dublin on Friday night.
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