'Three or four games in one' as Ireland 'win ugly'

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell said his side held their nerve and "just about got there" after they came through a chaotic Autumn Nations Series match against Argentina with a nail-biting 22-19 win.

Clearly driven after their 19-game home unbeaten run was ended by New Zealand, Ireland raced into a 12-0 lead and held a 13-point advantage at half-time.

But Ireland struggled against a resurgent Argentina in the second half and were held scoreless, with the Pumas falling just short of a historic first win on Irish soil.

"It was three or four games in one, wasn't it?" said Farrell.

"Obviously, the overriding feeling is we're delighted to get the win. There's a few things that we needed to learn from last week and some things that we didn't address on the field.

"We said last week we had a chance of winning ugly. We did that this week, so that's a plus."

Like in the New Zealand game last week, Ireland conceded 13 penalties - while Finlay Bealham and Joe McCarthy were yellow-carded - and were guilty of letting Argentina back into the game during the second half.

When asked about the side's lack of discipline at times, Farrell said: "It's not done out of a place of going out there to be ill-disciplined. It's coming from the right place, that might sound stupid but all they're trying to do is the right thing by their team and trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat too much at times.

"We need to be a little bit more patient at times, individually, and trust the team of what we're about."

Earlier this week, Farrell suggested some of his players were "lucky enough" to retain their place in the starting line-up after a flat performance against the All Blacks.

But the Englishman said he only received the response he wanted "in parts" against an impressive Pumas side.

"I think if I can try and sum it up of where we're at, when you're looking at two top sides that we've played in the first two weeks, it looks like we're still trying to find our feet in the intensity of the full 80 minutes for that top 1% games.

"New Zealand and Argentina have been playing those games for the past five or six months.

"It looks like our lads, some of them, are a little bit shy of that intensity. Hopefully we're building through this month and we'll see the best of us in the next few games."