RUGBY: It was Swan Lake in shorts. The Argentinians came to Dublin optimistic of bewitching the Irish one more time and left vowing to learn how to swim. They were sunk 16-7 on a Saturday of unimaginable rainfall that left the field at Lansdowne a bleak and terrible swamp. Keith Duggan reports
It was no place for rugby, no place for human life at all. And although the Irish are famed for amphibious rugby, this 80 minutes took the home players to new and astonishing extremes.
"It was monsoon stuff out there," marvelled Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan back on dry land. "The conditions made a lottery of the game. The ball was almost a liability. I felt we played it pretty tight. It was slippery out there. Bodies everywhere. A difficult game in which to play rugby."
Fast Eddie said it all. The ball squirted around between the teams like a greased ferret, full of spite and mischief. It made gifted men look clumsy. Great sprays of rainwater rose in clouds when the opposing packs thundered into one another and rumbled and rolled around the park like a pair of rhinos battling in the mud.
The business end of Ireland's pack - cubs in comparison to the Pumas' feared and notorious front row - returned to shore with their reputations enhanced. It was a day for brute force, sure eyes and nerves of steel.
Girvan Dempsey, Ireland's elegant full back, exemplified all of those qualities. Early on, the Argentinians tested his courage with a series of tricky up-and-under kicks that he safely cradled under intense pressure.
In the 20th minute, it was the turn of the Argentinian full back to look up to the heavens. Ignacio Corleto eyed Brian O'Driscoll's sly and spinning kick with deep unhappiness as half the Irish team steamed down upon him. Half-heartedly he reached to collect the falling comet but it spilled off his chest.
Dempsey was first to arrive and he took the ball in full flight and barged through the barrel-chested Mauricio Reggiardo for Ireland's first and only try. From there, the Irish looked in control.
"I thought Girvan showed a lot of grit. To take those catches with people rushing onto those high balls; brilliant," said Irish captain O'Driscoll. "I really felt it was one of his best games in an Irish jersey."
Shane Byrne, so long the understudy, threw with the fussy precision of a darts master on Ireland's lineouts, floating perfect ball for big Victor Costello and Mal O'Kelly to collect.
Ronan O'Gara enjoyed another perfect day in front of goal, landing four from four. Several times he failed to find touch, much to his annoyance, but it was an occasion when everyone's sights were a little blurred.
There was a sombre backdrop to the day with news of the death of Keith Wood's mother, Pauline, at her home in Killaloe, co Clare.
On the field, conditions did not suit the Argentinian sensibility. They looked blunted in the wet. Only once did they remind us of their opportunism, when Diego Albanese took a quick lineout in Ireland's 22, allowing the astonished Rolando Martin to stroll in for a try almost unnoticed after 23 minutes. It must have been the most low-key try in Test history.
"I didn't actually see it," said O'Driscoll sheepishly. "I needed the big screen replay. But it was definitely a case of a lapse in concentration on our part."
After a long delay, Felipe Contepomi hammered over the conversion, but that was the height of the visitor's joy. Unhappy in the lineout, they found it too wet to run and just too slippery to handle. Poor Corleto was the victim of a clownish moment late in the match when he leaned forward to reel in a poor pass, fumbled the ball and then belly-flopped into the small lake that had sprung up at the Havelock Square end of the ground. It was cruel on the visitors.
"You handle the ball, you're going to drop it," sighed Augstin Pichot. "Neither Ireland nor Argentina could get any momentum today; it was impossible to play any kind of expansive game."
Up 10-7 at the break, both teams re-emerged in fresh gear. It was a surprise that Peter Stringer, fishing in the water at the base of the scrum, didn't opt for fins and a snorkel. As the visitors laboured and dreamed of warm weather, the Irish kept it basic and O'Gara kicked them towards safety with a couple of penalties. Only once, on a daring solo raid from Pichot, did Argentina threaten, and that audacious run was called back by referee Chris White.
His full-time whistle was greeted the same way as the "Land Ahoy" shout in the old pirate movies. Everyone wanted away from the water. To muted applause, the Irish celebrated their sixth consecutive victory. It was a happy conclusion to the November trilogy, a damp but heartening note on which to close the calendar rugby year.
For in the not too distant future bigger days await, as do fast and baking-hot rugby fields. Days and places where the Lansdowne rain might seem like an Irish prayer answered.
