Ireland captain Caelan Doris has honed in on fixing the team’s discipline as the key to an improved performance against Argentina tomorrow.
And the Leinster No 8 says the 14 members of the starting XV who keep their place after last Friday’s dramatic underperformance against New Zealand have heard Andy Farrell’s message loud and clear and want to respond.
The Pumas have beaten France, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia this season, while they put 50 points on Italy last weekend and have a coach in Felipe Contepomi who knows Doris and the big Leinster contingent in the Ireland team well.
It’s a dangerous second Autumn Nations Series fixture for Ireland, but Doris believes they’re ready.
“Off the back of a loss like that, there’s obviously a lot of frustration and disappointment,” he said after leading the Captain’s Run training session in UCD today.
“And it definitely dictates the mood personally but also amongst the group for a couple of days and we kind of felt that linger that a little bit on Sunday and Monday which is natural given what it means for this team and for us as individuals to represent the country.
“A bit of that is natural but we turned the page pretty well on Sunday evening and Monday and we had a good training week with some very good sessions in there. Today went well as well so the mood is good now, there’s a lot of excitement about tomorrow.
“We know that Argentina are a proper team and a proper Test and they’ve shown that with some of their wins over the year and their development under Felipe.
“They’ve obviously been a top-class team for the last number of years, being in three of the last four World Cup semi-finals but I think they’ve gone up to another level under Felipe so we’re definitely aware that it’s going to be a big challenge but there’s also excitement at being back in the Aviva to get back to ourselves because we felt we weren’t ourselves last Friday.
“We’re getting a second chance and there’s competition. There are a lot of people who want to wear the jersey so there’s a bit of pressure to perform there but excitement as well, an opportunity too, so that’s the underlying thing.
“There’s expectation coming from ourselves and coming from the group and coming from what we see in training and the plan we have so it feels like positive pressure to a lot of guys, to myself.”
Ireland found themselves on the wrong side of referee Nic Berry last weekend and will hope to fare better with New Zealander Paul Williams against the Pumas.
“I think so. Discipline for this team has been a strength,” Doris said.
“I think we average around 10 penalties or less. We were up at 13 and they came at crucial moments in the game.
“We’d five in a row after we’d scored in the second half and they kicked nine points from that and as we were getting momentum back it completely turned back towards them.
“When you are playing on the edge, you are always going to give away a few but a lot of them were avoidable ones so there was disappointment around that.
“But there was also a feeling that there’s more in us, in terms of intent and making it happen a little bit as individuals.
“I definitely felt that myself, there’s more in me and I was a little bit disappointed with the lack of impact in the game and not as many involvements as I would have liked and I know a few guys who were like that and we’ve another chance tomorrow.”
Not that he believes Ireland can afford to play without aggression.
“I hope that comes out in edge on the pitch and in physicality and in more intent, which I think we lacked at times last Friday. I hope it comes out in the right way tomorrow,” he said.