Irish Rugby

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Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has praised Cian Healy ahead of the prop's record-equalling 133rd cap against Argentina on Friday.

Five-time Six Nations winner Healy will tie former Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll's record when he is introduced from the bench against the Pumas at Aviva Stadium.

"The utmost respect doesn't do it justice," Farrell said when asked about his thoughts on the Leinster forward, who made his Test debut in 2009.

"It's been a pleasure to be able to coach him. I was thinking back, when I coached Cian for the first time was 2013 on the [British and Irish] Lions tour.

"I was amazed by his athleticism. He would have been right in his pomp then in 2013 and he got a terrible ankle injury and the tour was taken away from him. That tour was made for him."

In addition to his longevity in the Test arena, Healy boasts a hugely decorated club CV having won four Champions Cups and seven league titles with Leinster, for whom he also holds the cap record.

"He's been a world-leading loosehead throughout his career. The transition he's made in the last number of years in how he's not just accepted but relished the responsibility of being a mentor to somebody like Andrew Porter.

"He [Porter]'s probably the Cian of 2013, isn’t he? He is a world-class loosehead and Cian's a part of the reason for that. He's selfless in that regard. But just watching how he's been with [uncapped prop] Jack Boyle has been priceless. He's a legend in our squad and continues to be so."

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Ireland head coach Andy Farrell says Felipe Contepomi has done a "magnificent" job with Argentina ahead of Friday's Test match in Dublin.

Former Leinster fly-half Contepomi left his coaching role with the Irish province to join Michael Cheika's Pumas backroom team.

But having replaced the Australian following last year's World Cup, the 47-year-old has overseen some impressive results, including Rugby Championship wins over New Zealand and double world champions South Africa.

"They're more of a complete team, that's for sure. They're not backs and forwards anymore, they're a team that plays an exciting brand of rugby," said Farrell.

"It's amazing to see how much more comfortable on the ball the forwards are and the interlink between the backs and the forwards is seamless.

"At the same time they still have the DNA, the fighting spirit and the dangerous, exciting outside backs as well."

Farrell added: "Felipe's done a magnificent job. You can see the cohesion they have in how they want to play.

"The hardest thing at top-level sport is consistency and rightly so, they're earning the right to be, in our mind, in the same type of bracket as the game we were talking about last week.

"Their performances and results over the last year certainly warrant that.

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Argentina have made three changes from their 50-18 win over Italy last weekend for Friday's meeting with Ireland in Dublin.

Vice-captain Pablo Matera returns to the back row after suspension as he takes over from Santiago Grondona, who drops to the replacements.

Guido Petti replaces Franco Molina at lock while there is one backs change as Matias Moroni comes in for Matias Orlando.

Fit-again fly-half Santiago Carreras is named on the bench after missing the game in Udine because of a calf injury.

Molina is named in the replacements as Orlando drops out of the matchday squad.

The Pumas ran in seven tries against the Azzurri with fly-half Tomas Albornoz scoring 20 points.

Argentina, who reached the semi-finals at last year's World Cup, also secured some big results in this season's Rugby Championship, beating New Zealand in Wellington and world champions South Africa at home. They also scored 67 points in a home win over Australia.

Ireland have won 13 of the 19 Test encounters between the countries - including all 10 at home - but the Pumas have won three of their four World Cup encounters including the most recent 2015 quarter-final when they earned a 43-20 win over an injury-hit Irish side in Cardiff.

Robbie Henshaw, Conor Murray, Cian Healy and Iain Henderson, all of whom featured that day, are still in the Ireland squad while Matias Alemanno and Connacht's Santiago Cordero remain part of Argentina's plans although they have not been named in the squad for Friday's match.

Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi is back in Dublin where he spent six years as a player with Leinster between 2003 and 2009 in addition to a later four-season coaching stint with the Irish province.

Argentina: Juan Cruz Mallia; Rodrigo Isgro, Lucio Cinti, Matias Moroni, Bautista Delguy; Tomas Albornoz, Gonzalo Bertranou; Thomas Gallo, Julian Montoya (capt), Joel Sclavi; Guido Petti, Pedro Rubiolo; Pablo Matera, Juan Martin Gonzalez, Joaquin Oviedo

Replacements: Ignacio Ruiz, Ignacio Calles, Francisco Gomez Kodela, Franco Molina, Santiago Grondona, Gonzalo Garcia, Santiago Carreras, Justo Piccardo.

Jonathan Bradley
BBC Sport NI Journalist

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Ireland winger Mack Hansen says the squad will ignore "outside noise" in the build-up to their Test against Argentina in Dublin on Friday.

Andy Farrell's side saw their home winning streak ended at 19 by the All Blacks last week and subsequently lost their place at the top of the world rankings.

While questions have been asked of a team that have been beaten in three of their past five matches, Hansen pointed to how Andy Farrell's side responded to their last setback.

Thanks to a pair of late Ciaran Frawley drop-goals, Ireland came back to beat South Africa and draw their two-Test series in July, one week after being decidedly outplayed in the first meeting.

"People are always very eager to jump on you when you’re down. It’s like in South Africa, nobody gave them a hope after the first Test," said Hansen, who missed that series through injury.

“And what happens? They come back and win it. That’s the best thing about this group. The outside noise is outside noise and nobody knows what goes on in here, how hard we work and how resilient we are.

"People can chat away. The people who know us know, unfortunately, it was one of those weeks [against New Zealand], but we’re ready to bounce back.”

Ireland were error-strewn against the All Blacks, with Hansen saying the squad will be "looking to right a lot of wrongs" against Felipe Contepomi's Argentina side who arrived in Dublin after a big win over Italy.

“There weren’t really hard chats, just honest chats,” added the Connacht wing of Ireland's Monday debrief.

"We came to the conclusion that it wasn’t good enough and also that it just wasn’t us.

"So this week we’re looking to right a lot of wrongs and no better place to do it then back in the Aviva in front of a home crowd."

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Ulster prop Tom O'Toole will miss Ireland's Test against Argentina at the Aviva Stadium on Friday night.

The 26-year-old replaced Finlay Bealham after 58 minutes in the 23-13 loss to the All Blacks last week, but lasted only two minutes before a head injury forced him off.

With Tadhg Furlong, who missed out against New Zealand with a hamstring injury, still a doubt to face the Pumas, Leinster's Tom Clarkson could be in line for an Ireland debut.

The 24-year-old has played 47 times for his province and was initially included in the squad for the November as a 'training panellist'.

Andy Farrell's side have fallen to third in the world rankings after their latest defeat, a third in their past five games dating back to the Six Nations.

“I think it's only natural that there’s a bit of hurt, but there’s no anger,” said Aled Walters, the side's head of athletic performance.

“It’s a group that doesn’t seem to be used to losing all that much, it’s probably an environment that’s been immediately down in the changing room but as I understand, Faz [Farrell] is pretty good at getting things back on track fairly quickly, and the coaches and leaders the same. They were pretty good today.

"It's how quickly you can summarise and understand what went wrong. We came in yesterday and got started, a lot of that was understanding what didn't work.

"It's pretty clear what we need to get right in order to function and be at our best."

Jonathan Bradley
BBC Sport NI Journalist

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Ireland prop Finlay Bealham says there can be "no sulking" from the side in the aftermath of their 23-13 defeat to New Zealand on Friday.

The All Blacks ended Ireland's unbeaten home run after 19 games in a game where Will Jordan scored the only try in the second half.

Ireland have further games this November against Argentina, Fiji and Australia.

"Everyone is obviously bitterly disappointed," said the Connacht man.

"Look, there's still three games to go in this series, and we'll dust ourselves off.

"We're not feeling sorry for ourselves, we'll analyse it properly and we've another big Test next week. Back on the horse."

Head coach Andy Farrell said the Ireland players were "sombre" in the immediate aftermath of the defeat, but with Argentina in Dublin next weekend, Bealham said the mindset quickly shifted to improving upon what was an error strewn performance.

"It was a disappointing dressing room," he added.

"It's always tough to lose at home. We got into a huddle and just said 'no sulking'.

"We'll get on with it and learn from the mistakes we made. We have an incredibly tough test match next Friday and we'll look to fix the stuff we can be better at."

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Ireland flanker Tadhg Beirne admits that he still thinks of his side's World Cup quarter-final loss to the All Blacks last year "quite regularly".

On Friday night at the Aviva Stadium, the sides will meet for the first time since that Paris knock-out game.

And, while the last ten games between the pair have been evenly split with five wins each, New Zealand won not just the 2023 World Cup quarter-final, but also at the same stage in Japan four years prior.

"I still have nightmares about that game," said Beirne, who will wear the Irish number six jersey in Dublin.

"Particularly if you are having a sleepless night, it can keep you up at night sometimes. I think that's sport and they are the things you kind of have to live with.

"You have lost, live with disappointment for that. We lost that day and we can't change it, but sometimes those moments just pop into your head and you can't help it - what could have been."

Ireland had their chances to win at the Stade de France 13 months ago, with hooker Ronan Kelleher notably halted over the line late on by a superb defensive intervention from centre Jordie Barrett.

"Look it is a game of inches at the end of the day and I think there is a few moments in that game where we have looked back and said 'we could have done this' and 'we could have done that' and I think it is just being better in the moment, being able to see things in the moment and take those opportunities," added Beirne.

"If there is one thing we can be better at, it is just continue to try and see opportunities and take them."