Ireland will have had few more crucial matches in their
recent history than their last Autumn International against Argentina today and
everything seems set toward a nail-biting clash for both Celts and Puma fans
alike early this afternoon.
Declan Kidney’s side have had a disappointing year, failing
to match the progress made during the early stage of the World Cup with a third
places 6 Nations finish due to winning positions being given up against Wales and
France, and they’ve failed to produce any performances of real note barring
their close 22-19 defeat against New Zealand in Canterbury and have slipped
enough in the IRB Rankings that defeat today coupled with victory for Scotland
would see them drop out of the world’s top eight in time for the end of year
rankings. This is so crucial purely because the seedings for the next Rugby
World Cup are decided upon the three separate groups; Drop out of the eight and
Ireland have a 75% chance of facing one of the Tri Nations, and could well draw
a big 6 Nations Rival in two of their three games, which is a desperate
situation before you’ve even started.
Ireland failure’s to hold onto a 9 point lead against South
Africa at the beginning of the Autumn Internationals exposed a lot of their
flaws and may prove rather costly considering that today’s assignment against
Los Pumas – themselves still in danger of slipping out of the top eight – is as
tricky as they could have asked for outside the big two. Long considered one of
Rugby’s more dangerous sides, their long overdue admission to the Rugby
Championship (the Four Nation) has seen them come to Europe more dangerous than
ever and in sparkling form, with their cohesion better than ever before and
their players now hardened and skilled from several years of top European completion,
as Wales found out to their cost in the first week of the tour.
Admittedly they’ve gone to lose to Samoa since, but there
was no denying just how impressive that performance was at the time and looks
here even after Los Pumas’s heavy defeat to France (who it must be remembered had
previously torn Australia apart 33-6). Given the second half barrage of points
from the French it could be said that a heavy schedule is once again catching
up with them – like the Rugby Championship double header at home which saw them
lost twice to Australia and New Zealand – but it should be remembered that
Ireland themselves are essentially an injury hit, underfiring side who aren’t
in the same class as they are, and if Declan Kidney’s side win at all, they’ll
be hard pushed to do so.
Advice
1 pt Ireland to win by 1-5 points (5/1 Hills)
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