Delight as Sexton drives point home

A flawless display by Jonathan Sexton eased Ireland to an end-of-year 29-9 win over an off-colour Argentina at in Dublin here on Sunday in their final year-end test.

The Ireland flyhalf got the better of his former Leinster mentor, Argentina’s Felipe Contepomi, kicking 17 points as the hosts got the better of the side that has caused them enormous problems in the past including two demoralising defeats in the 1999 and 2007 World Cups.

The hosts also scored the only two tries of the game through Stephen Ferris and Gordon D’Arcy.

Ireland led 19-3 at half-time, following an impressive all-round show as Declan Kidney’s side emerged from a slow start to play with style and power.

Unfortunately the second half failed to give the 30,476 numb-fingered support little to cheer, but following a run of just one win in the last eight games, the Irish won’t argue.

“I’m delighted for the players,” said Kidney, who guided Ireland to the Six Nations Grand Slam in 2009.

“They’ve worked really hard over the past five weeks. We’ve a number of objectives; to build a squad, and with a four games series, we saw everybody buying into it.

“We’ve a heap to do, but it’s a nice way to finish.”

Questions will surround Argentina’s progress too, as their European tour comes to a disappointing end – particularly in the manner with which they lost in Dublin.

With Ireland struggling to achieve a level of consistency this year-end, Santiago Phelan’s side may have sensed they were facing a vulnerable team.

Argentina enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges and following a huge maul by the visiting pack in the fifth minute, things looked rocky for Ireland.

Mario Ledesma appeared to have rolled over the tryline, but South African referee Mark Lawrence denied them the perfect start, as Heaslip had somehow put his body between the prop and the ground.

A scrum was awarded and despite dominating the Irish pack again, Argentina were punished for not using the ball and the scrum was overturned.

Heaslip said that it had been a crucial psychological blow.

“We knew they’d target us at the scrum, the lads had been copping a lot of flack,” admitted the Israel-born Leinster star.

“We did well in the first ten minutes to hold them back, and I think in general we did a good job.”

Breaks by D’Arcy and Andrew Trimble got Ireland into Argentina territory for the first time, relieving the pressure, and eventually a penalty came, which Sexton slotted home to give Ireland the lead.

Ireland were pressurising Argentina in midfield, with Peter Stringer highly impressive on his return to the starting lineup, and it was no surprise the Munster scrumhalf had a hand in the opening try.

Stringer linked up with Sexton, who fed Tommy Bowe and just as they did against New Zealand last week, back row duo Heaslip and Ferris combined impressively, with the Ulsterman grabbing a second try in as many games.

“That’s the kid of pattern we wanted to play,” said Heaslip.

“Bring them across the pitch, work them in the middle – and we caught them out.”

Sexton converted and on the half hour slotted another penalty to put Ireland 13 points clear.

Contepomi – who was to miss four kicks – finally put Argentina on the scoreboard with a penalty on the half hour, but Rodrigo Roncero pulled Stringer by the shirt a moment later, coughing up another penalty to allow Sexton to put Ireland 13 points ahead again.

The visitors were punished for further indiscipline when Sexton scored from another penalty with the last kick of the half to send Ireland in 16 points clear.

The former and current Leinster flyhalves traded penalties in the 30 minutes that followed the restart, Contepomi’s two either side of Sexton.

Ireland ended with a sparkle. Keith Earls was bizarrely denied a try by video referee Daniel Gillet, who declared a knock on, but D’Arcy’s chip-and-collect touchdown in the very last minute rounded off a dull second-half with a piece of genius.

“We’re delighted with the win, it’s a good way to end the November series and it puts us in good stead for the Six Nations,” Sexton said. “But there are loads of areas we need to look at. We’re far from the finished product.

“We set out to do some things this November, some of which we achieved by building a squad. But there’s an awful lot of work to do.”

AFP & AP