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PARIS - Ireland will need their biggest win over Argentina since August 1999 to reach the quarter-finals when they face the Pumas in the Pool D decider at the Parc des Princes on Monday.
Ireland beat Argentina 32-24 in a test in Dublin in the build-up to the 1999 World Cup organised by Wales.
They probably wished they had saved that performance for less than two months later when the Pumas upset Ireland 28-24 in a quarter-final in Lens to reach the last eight for the first time while denying the Irish a berth they have occupied in every World Cup bar that one.
Since then, Argentina have beaten Ireland three times at home. The Irish have won twice in Dublin and at the most important match in Adelaide in a 2003 World Cup pool decider.
The biggest ask, though, of this keen rivalry comes up on Monday when Ireland need to win scoring four tries for a bonus point and by more than seven points to prevent the Pumas from taking a defensive bonus.
Any other scenario puts Ireland out of the tournament.
The last time the teams met, albeit missing several first-choice players, Argentina won 16-0 in Buenos Aires for a two-test series win in June and they are the only team at the World Cup who have yet to concede a try.
"We need to play the game of our lives," centre Gordon D'Arcy said at the team's base in Bordeaux.
"It will be very dangerous if we go into the game just concentrating on scoring tries. Of course, it will be on our minds but that's not the way to beat Argentina. They're very hard and very physical defensively.
"The way to do it is to keep taking them through the phases and keep turning them around, that's when they can start getting a bit down. We can't afford to be attempting to run in tries from our own 22.
"Argentina have always been defensively very good but they've added an extra dimension to their game now [in attack] ... It's up to us to get behind them and be very clinical and get our passes away."
Players and coach Eddie O'Sullivan have come in for considerable criticism from media and fans after poor games against Namibia and Georgia, the weakest teams in the pool, followed by a 25-3 defeat by France.
D'Arcy, however, said there was no unrest in the Ireland camp, regardless of the surprise of halfback Peter Stringer being dropped for the France game and back Geordan Murphy barely featuring in the tournament.
"We're all 100 per cent behind Eddie," D'Arcy said.
"The problem is we just haven't been clicking on the field."
- Reuters
