The Lions will face a long flight from Dublin to Perth tomorrow morning, never a pleasant prospect at the best of times, but made worse by travelling after a historic four-point defeat to Argentina.
The in-flight entertainment will be limited to watching a thriller, which ultimately turned into a horror film for the most famous rugby team in the world.
Both teams were deprived of preparation time and it showed at the Aviva Stadium. The intensely structured rugby was replaced by a free-flowing, high risk off-loading game from both sides.
Ignacio Mendy opened the scoring for the Pumas after some slick passing, before Irish centre Bundee Aki responded almost immediately with a try of his own.
Man of the match Tomas Albornoz scored the next 13 points for his side, starting with two well struck penalties and a converted try when his side desperately needed some inspiration.
The playmaker was at the heart of everything Argentina did well, leading his backline against a formidable Lions’ team.
At their best, the Lions shone in the centres with Aki combining well with Melbourne born and raised Sione Tuipulotu and English winger Tommy Freeman also looked dangerous anytime he got his hands on the ball.
In the scrum, Ellis Genge performance in the first-half will have set alarm bells for Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt and his scrum coach Mike Cron, as he had absolute dominance over Pumas’ tighthead Joel Sclavi.
The Wallabies will desperately need a fit and firing Allan Alaalatoa to hold up against this pressure not only from Genge, but the even more formidable Irish prop Andrew Porter.
In the second half, the Lions starved Argentina of possession, to the delight of the sold-out crowd in Dublin, where the cheapest seats up in the nose bleeds seats was over $200.
Irish second-rower Tadhg Beirne got the Lions’ second try after 52 minutes and it looked like Andy Farrell’s team had far more gears to move through than the Pumas who were increasingly scrambling in defence.
Although this game wasn’t counted as an official Test match and Argentina where without some of their French-based stars, the meaning of the game was clear. Twenty years ago Felipe Contempomi had come close to victory with a 20-20 draw against the Lions in Cardiff.
The former playmaker is now the coach and after a pinpoint kick sent Santiago Cordero over to score a try totally against the run of play, it breathed life into the visitors, giving his side a 28-24 lead.
For the last 20 minutes, the Argentina defence held out against a fierce Lions’ pack, defending their line by a matter of inches.
The Lions had one last chance to snatch victory, but stand-in captain Beirne was penalised for a neck roll on his Argentinian opponent, giving the ball back to the visitors and ultimately one of their most famous victories.
The Lions are wounded, but this perhaps makes them an even more dangerous prospect in Australia. We shall soon see in Perth next Saturday.
Santiago Cordero of Argentina celebrates with teammatesCredit: Getty Images
