Don’t cry for them, it’s Argentina: Lions fall short in Dublin

It is a tricky little fixture, the Lions warm-up game.

There will have been several things that Andy Farrell, the British and Irish Lions head coach, would have been eager to see; an early understanding of the Lions defensive system, flourishing partnerships across each of the core units, an upper edge in the scrum against a highly respected Argentina pack.

Then there are things that Farrell would absolutely not have wanted to see, specifically any injuries. The Lions’s plans four years ago were thrown into chaos after an injury to their captain, Alun Wyn Jones, in the warm-up fixture against Japan at Murrayfield. Jones dislocated his shoulder after seven minutes, the opposite of ideal, and was ruled out of the tour.

The fact that he returned four weeks later, in time for the first Test, was a bit of a miracle. Given what happened to Jones, you can understand if Farrell watched his captain Maro Itoje enter every ruck with a hint of trepidation. The moment where Tommy Freeman appeared to jar his leg after going for a catch was not pleasant either. Getting on the plane to Australia with a clean bill of health and no dates with a disciplinary panel? Farrell will take that.

Obviously every punter in Dublin would have rather seen the Lions kick off their summer by not losing the opening game of a Lions tour for the first time since 1971. However when you take a step back, to be tested and stressed by an Argentina side ranked fifth in the world will be far more beneficial than thrashing a weak opponent.

This was the sternest of pre-tour Tests that the Lions have faced so far, against a good side Argentina missing a number of their top French-based stars, and stern is a good thing. You learn little about how well combinations and personalities will thrive under pressure if there is, well, no pressure.

Aside from a clean bill of health, what else was Farrell looking for on an unusually warm evening in Dublin? A sense of cohesion, of attacking and defensive systems bedding in, promising signs in the set-piece. There were some of those.

Farrell’s overly critical assessment afterwards felt a bit drastic. “You cannot win any type of Test match with that type of error rate… throwing passes that were never on… they were hungrier than us which is just not acceptable.”

No it was not perfect, but the initial reaction was to applaud the Lions for showing dollops of ambition in a first game, to revere Ellis Genge and Finlay Bealham for dismantling a respected Argentina scrum. The lineout move featuring Alex Mitchell (England), Bundee Aki (Ireland) and Sione Tuipulotu (Scotland) which almost led to a score is exactly why everyone loves the Lions as a concept – it is fantasy rugby. Aki is a marvel, dragging three defenders on his back for his try.

Inevitably for what was essentially a scratch side, there were ill-timed handling errors in the first which could have led to further scores. How hard should you really be on Duhan van der Merwe after his first game for three months with an ankle injury, which began with a promising break before he looked clearly off the pace under the high ball and struggled. It is worth remembering too that the Lions were ultimately beaten by two outstanding counter-attacking tries by Argentina.

Out of all the areas the Lions have to master in a short space of time, defence is the most complicated, given you have players coming from four separate systems.

Steve Tandy, defence coach for a second successive tour with the Lions, has historically used a model built around hounding the breakdown with fetchers, while asking defenders to trust their team-mates on either side, to not go rogue and fly out of the line. ‘The Blue Wall’, as it was known when Tandy was with the Waratahs in Australia. There were a few bricks missing from the red version in Dublin, as expected. Argentina gladly attacked the space left open in the wider 15-metre channels.

Finally, Farrell will have been looking for breakout stars. Four years ago it was Jack Conan, the Leinsterman muscling his way into the Test side at No 8 ahead of a Warren Gatland favourite in Taulupe Faletau. Was there one here? Maybe it was Bealham, only called into the squad after Zander Ferguson’s injury, with frontrunner Tadhg Furlong still on the comeback trail. One carry from Genge in the second half, racing onto the flattest of passes from Tomos Williams and cantering into space after busting a tackle, was electrifying. More of those, please.

Losing to a good Argentina side is no disaster. If anything it probably helps sharpen the mind on the long flight to Perth over the weekend. No one will remember the result if the Lions clinch the series in Australia.

Photograph by Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images