Ireland coach Joe Schmidt praises 'fantastic' Argentina
Sunday 18 October 2015 18:08, UK
Ireland boss Joe Schmidt had nothing but praise for Argentina - and fly-half Nicolas Sanchez in particular - after the Pumas dumped them out of the World Cup.
Argentina prevailed 43-20 in a stunning quarter-final at Cardiff. The Pumas roared into a 17-0 lead early on, only for the Irish to fight back to cut the deficit to three at 20-17.
But from there Daniel Hourcade's men pulled away, scoring two tries in the last 11 minutes, to book their places in the semi-finals, and Schmidt says they deserved it.
The Irish are yet to reach that stage, despite their rich rugby history. They will rue their slow start and the absence of key elements of their leadership group in captain Paul O'Connell, star fly-half Johnny Sexton, and flankers Sean O'Brien and Peter O'Mahony, who were either injured or suspended.
"As difficult as it is to be going out of the World Cup, it was a fantastic Argentina performance and a performance our players will learn from," Schmidt said.
"There's a lot of my players who have never, ever been in a match of that intensity."
Sanchez was Argentina's heartbeat - "imperious," according to Schmidt - but the Ireland boss pointed to a controversial penalty when Ireland lock Devin Toner, all 6'11" of him, was called up for a high tackle as the diminutive Sanchez ducked into a challenge.
"I felt sorry for Dev at 23-20 when they won a penalty," Schmidt said. "I thought Sanchez was imperious today. But I do think he milked that for everything it was worth. And once it got to 26-20 it became a little bit more difficult."
Sanchez kicked 23 points and missed just one of his 10 shots at goal, making Ireland pay for their indiscipline, particularly at the breakdown.
When Sanchez booted a 14th-minute penalty for 17-0, the Irish needed to produce the greatest comeback in World Cup history - and they almost pulled it off.
"Building that scoreboard pressure allowed them some confidence and dented the confidence of our group," Schmidt said.
"You can't afford to give a good team like that such a head-start. But at the same time at 23-20 we worked an overlap that we didn't quite take.
"It's a team that was probably lacking a bit of experience, a few cool heads to manage the various areas of the field.
"It either comes off for us or for them, and we didn't quite get the rub of the green."
