Ireland could be more ‘ruthless’: coach

HAT-TRICK HAMMERING: Ireland’s fangs could be further out, Coach Andy Farrell said, but a 42-12 thrash of Argentina including a three-peat is a good showing

Ireland coach Andy Farrell said he was delighted “to get a good win” after his side routed Argentina 42-12 in their Nations Championship Test at Lansdowne Road but added they could have been “more ruthless.”

Hugo Keenan led the way scoring a hat-trick of tries — in his first home Test in over a year -- as the Irish ran in six tries against a disappointing Pumas outfit.

The Irish go on to host Fiji on Saturday week before the biggest challenge of all world champions South Africa in a fortnight -- prior to finals weekend at Twickenham.

Ireland’s Hugo Keenan is tackled by defenders during the Nations Championship rugby union match between Ireland and Argentina in Dublin on Friday.

Photo: AP

“Well, first and foremost delighted to get the win and a good win at that,” Farrell said. “You know, six tries to two says a lot.

“So delighted to get the season off with a big W,” he added.

Farrell had said in the lead-up to the match he felt the Irish in their present state were not contenders to win next year’s Rugby World Cup — a tournament they have yet to even reach the semi-finals.

The 51-year-old Englishman, who, with an arguably stronger team, guided them to the 2023 quarter-finals, 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 said all in all “it’s a good place to be.”

His Argentina counterpart Felipe Contepomi has had little time with his players, and he said it showed in the differences between the two teams.

“Well, to start with, 30 points, and then obviously I think there was a more cohesive and slick team, the Irish, and we made a lot of individual errors,” Contepomi said. “I’m very proud for 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,” he added.

Argentina go on to play Italy and then Six Nations champions France in what has been a tough year in terms of results.

However, he took some positives out of the match.

“Well, the initiative, how they went out straight off the blocks and then there was some good rugby,” Contepomi said. “The attitude. I think the players, they 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.”

Keenan might 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,” he added.

His teammate 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,” said Beirne, who will be 35 when the World Cup comes round.

“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,” he added.