British and Irish Lions 24-28 Argentina: Pumas stun Maro Itoje's side to claim historic victory at Aviva Stadium in Dublin
British and Irish Lions lose 2025 tour opener as Argentina score three dazzling tries to clinch thriller in Dublin; Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne score Lions tries in defeat; watch every game of 2025 Lions tour, including all three Tests vs Australia, live on Sky Sports
Saturday 21 June 2025 11:07, UK
The British and Irish Lions began their 2025 tour with defeat as Argentina stunned Andy Farrell's side with a historic 28-24 win in Dublin.
Irish internationals Bundee Aki and Tadhg Beirne scored tries in what was the first Lions match ever played in Ireland, while the forward pack also forced a penalty try via a rolling maul.
But the Pumas refused to lie down in the contest, scoring three sensational tries through Ignacio Mendy, Tomas Albornoz and Santiago Cordero to confirm a first victory over the touring side at the eighth attempt dating back to 1910.
Fly-half Albornoz also kicked 13 points with the boot as the Pumas dealt with being down a player for 10 minutes as loosehead Mayco Vivas was sin-binned for the penalty try incident.
- Lions 24-28 Argentina as it happened: Pumas stun to Dublin victory
- Lions tour of Australia: When and how to watch on Sky Sports
- Stream the British and Irish Lions with no contract
Argentina punish wasteful Lions
A bright start from Argentina saw them take the lead inside five minutes via a close-range Albornoz penalty, only for the Lions to seemingly respond within moments.
Captain Maro Itoje won the ball back in the Argentina half, and though wing Duhan van Merwe made a powerful break and failed to play in Alex Mitchell for a try, hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie was awarded a score shortly after. That was until a TMO replay proved Cowan-Dickie had knocked the ball on attempting to ground over the try-line after a rolling maul.
Fin Smith levelled the contest off the tee in the 10th minute when Tom Curry forced a breakdown penalty, but Argentina were then first to register a try.
A set-piece strike-play saw the Pumas create space down the left for full-back Santiago Carreras to sprint into and find exciting wing Mendy, who stepped and finished superbly.
Albornoz missed the conversion wide, while the Lions had a second early try ruled out when Sione Tuipulotu's effort was pulled back for an earlier Mitchell knock-on.
Argentina had knocked on in a tackle just prior, however, and from the scrum a monstrous Lions effort set the platform for a sensational sequence of quick hands through the backline which gave Aki space to display all his grunt and power to get over, giving the Lions their first lead.
It wasn't long before Argentina wrestled back ascendency in what was already an absorbing contest, as Albornoz edged the visitors back in front near the half-hour mark with another penalty as the Lions' lineout platform started to fail them.
An error by Marcus Smith in carrying back over his own try-line preceded Albornoz kicking three more close-range points, and then with the clock in the red things got even better for the Pumas.
With the Lions having forced a turnover in the final play seeking a try, Argentina instead won the ball back and counter-attacked for a lovely try at pace finished by the influential Albornoz, leaving them 11 points up at the break.
The Lions came out and dominated the start of the second half, with the pack forcing a penalty try on 46 minutes after a rampant rolling maul was cut down shy of the try-line - Pumas prop Vivas sin-binned for the act.
With Argentina down to 14, a monumental Ellis Genge carry then created the momentum for Beirne to score the Lions' third try for the lead off a lovely Tomos Williams pass.
The score remained 24-21 to the Lions when Vivas returned from his yellow card, and the Pumas struck for a third wonderful try to regain the advantage once more near the hour-mark via Cordero on turnover ball.
Indeed, Argentina went coast-to-coast for the score as Albornoz dummied and stepped past Curry and Henry Pollock before passes flowed through No 8 Joaquin Oviedo and centre Justo Piccardo to replacement Matias Moroni, who grubber-kicked ahead perfectly for Cordero to pin his ears back and ground before Marcus Smith.
Albornoz converted well for a 28-24 lead, and the Lions then failed to make the most of several opportunities back in the Argentina 22: replacement hooker Ronan Kelleher overthrowing a five-metre lineout in the clearest chance, with Beirne then penalised for a neck-roll five metres out soon after.
Itoje: We don't want to play tippy-tappy rugby | Aki: Lions can only get better from here
Lions captain Maro Itoje speaking to Sky Sports:
"At times we were playing tippy-tappy rugby and that's not what we want to be. We want to be an aggressive team.
"But we are building. We would have liked to have been firing right from the off, it wasn't quite that, but we'll live, learn and get better."
Lions centre Bundee Aki speaking to Sky Sports:
"We're not making any excuses; Argentina are a bloody good outfit. They punished us when we weren't clinical. Every turnover we gave, they scored at every opportunity.
"We bounced back in the second half, Andy Farrell reminded us at half-time when it meant to be a Lion - when it gets hard, you've got to push it to another level. In certain parts of the game we did it, in others we didn't. Argentina did.
"This shows where we are as a group, we can only get better from here. We know the challenge ahead of us, none of the nine games are going to be easy, so we've got to take the learnings out of this but we've got to learn quick."
What's next: British & Irish Lions tour of Australia on Sky Sports
Sky Sports will exclusively show the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, with all three Tests against the Wallabies and six warm-up matches to be shown exclusively live.
