Ireland head coach Andy Farrell admitted some of his players are “lucky” to be getting another chance to impress after his side’s lacklustre defeat at home to New Zealand in the Autumn Nations Series.
The clash between the All Blacks and Ireland was much anticipated, especially given the intensity of their meeting in the quarter-finals of last year’s Rugby World Cup.
However, it failed to live up to the billing as the Kiwis ground out a fairly comfortable 23-13 win on a wet Friday night in Dublin.
The result saw Ireland lose their No. 1 ranking, with Argentina next up for Farrell’s charges.
“It [pressure]’s what concentrates the mind, it’s when you see where your character’s at,” he said.
“We want to win all of our games but the opposition is always going to have a say in that. I think this is perfect because we have another top-drawer opponent coming and we want to test ourselves because we feel we let a few people down last week.”
Only inside centre Bundee Aki has been dropped, with Robbie Henshaw taking his place in the starting line-up.
Fly-half Jack Crowley retains his place in the 15 despite the bluntness of the Irish attack.
“Jack, along with quite a few of our players, would have been hoping for a better performance,” Farrell added.
“Some of them are lucky enough to get another chance to do that, others are coming in and some of them obviously played pretty well themselves, but there were too many people not right at their best and we’re hoping for everyone to improve, not just Jack.
“The control of the game is something Jack would be open and honest about wanting to step up a little bit this week but we’ve seen this in training.”
Ireland v Argentina line-ups
Ireland: Hugo Keenan; Mack Hansen, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe; Jack Crowley, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Ronan Kelleher, Finlay Bealham; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (c).
Replacements: Rob Herring, Cian Healy, Thomas Clarkson, Ryan Baird, Peter O’Mahony, Craig Casey, Sam Prendergast, Jamie Osborne.
Argentina: Juan Cruz Mallia; Rodrigo Isgro, Lucio Cinti, Matias Moroni, Bautista Delguy; Tomas Albornoz, Gonzalo Bertranou; Thomas Gallo, Julian Montoya (c), 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.