This weekend's Autumn Nations Series action will kick off with an intriguing contest at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, where Ireland will be taking on Argentina on Friday night.
Ireland suffered a painful loss to the All Blacks at this venue last weekend, while Argentina claimed a commanding victory over their old foes Italy at Stadio Friuli.
Match preview
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Ireland's powers of recovery will be tested this Friday after suffering a deflating 23-13 defeat to New Zealand last week, which brought an end to their 19-match home winning streak spanning over three years.
The Six Nations champions were guilty of committing a raft of errors against the All Blacks and were made to pay for their sloppiness, with Damian McKenzie slotting over six penalties to lead the Southern Hemisphere giants to their first win on Irish soil since 2016.
Aside from losing their impeccable winning streak on home soil, what was probably more painful for the Shamrocks was that they were unable to exact their revenge on the side that sent them packing from the Rugby World Cup last year.
Nevertheless, with that match now in the rearview mirror, the key for Andy Farrell's side is to produce a vastly improved performance here against the Pumas to rebuild their momentum before facing Fiji and Australia over the next two weeks.
Ireland and Argentina have faced each other a total of 19 times at Test level since 1990, and the Shamrocks have won 13 of those, including all 10 on home soil, with the most recent ending in a resounding 53-7 win almost exactly three years ago.
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While Ireland have been the dominant force in this fixture over the years, Argentina have managed a few notable victories, including in three of their four World Cup encounters - the most recent being in 2015 in Cardiff where they won 43-20.
Los Pumas will also enter this match brimming with confidence after their performance last week, when they ran in an impressive seven tries against the Azzurri, with fly-half Tomas Albornoz notching up 20 points in the victory.
That result was just another step forward for the South Americans, who have had an exceptional last 18 months, a period during which they reached the semi-final of the World Cup in France.
Additionally, Felipe Contepomi's side also enjoyed a very good Rugby Championship campaign this year, posting wins over South Africa and New Zealand, before a record-breaking victory over Wooden Spoon recipients Australia.
Contepomi will need no introduction to Irish fans either, as the former Pumas fly-half spent six years as a player for Leinster before returning to the province as a backs coach under Leo Cullen in 2018.
Ireland form (all competitions):
- W
- L
- W
- L
- W
- L
Argentina form (all competitions):
- L
- L
- W
- W
- L
- W
Team News
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Farrell has made just one change to the starting 15 he sent out against the All Blacks last week, and that tweak comes in midfield where Robbie Henshaw comes in to partner Garry Ringrose in place of Bundee Aki.
The Ireland head coach has also made two changes to his bench, calling up uncapped Leinster duo Thomas Clarkson and Sam Prendergast, while Cian Healy is set to draw level with Brian O'Driscoll on 133 caps at the top of the Shamrocks' all-time appearance list.
Argentina, meanwhile, will be able to welcome Pablo Matera back to the team this week, after the inspirational back-rower was forced to sit out last week's demolition of Italy due to a suspension.
Matias Moroni has been brought into the starting 15 in place of Matias Orlando, while Justo Piccardo and Gloucester's Santiago Carreras are added to the bench, with the former in line to make his national team debut.
Ireland starting lineup: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Mack Hansen, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 James Lowe, 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Caelan Doris (c), 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Tadhg Beirne, 5 James Ryan, 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Finlay Bealham, 2 Rónan Kelleher, 1 Andrew Porter
Replacements: 16 Rob Herring, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Ryan Baird, 20 Peter O'Mahony, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Sam Prendergast, 23 Jamie Osborne
Argentina starting lineup: 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Rodrigo Isgro, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Matias Moroni, 11 Bautista Delguy, 10 Tomas Albornoz, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Joaquin Oviedo, 7 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Joel Sclavi, 2 Julian Montoya (c), 1 Thomas Gallo
Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Ignacio Calles, 18 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 19 Franco Molina, 20 Santiago Grondona, 21 Gonzalo Garcia, 22 Santiago Carreras, 23 Justo Piccardo
We say: Ireland 38-18 Argentina
While Argentina have been very impressive over the last year or so, they still have a tendency of firing hot and cold, often following up big wins with big losses as we saw in the Rugby Championship this year.
Ireland will be hurting after passing up the opportunity to get back at the All Blacks last week and we feel that they will put on a much more dominant performance this weekend.
No Data Analysis info
Devesh Jaganath
