Argentina dumped Ireland out of the World Cup with a 30-15 victory – and sent host nation France into a quarter-final showdown with tournament favourites New Zealand next Saturday – after finishing top of Pool D at Parc des Princes.
The Pumas will face Scotland in Paris, but Ireland now follow RBS 6 Nations colleagues Wales and Italy in making an early exit.
Ireland went into the group eliminator needing a bonus point victory, but although Brian O’Driscoll and Geordan Murphy scored tries, they finished a distant second-best.
Unbeaten Argentina never looked like losing, with wings Lucas Borges and Horacio Agulla claiming touchdowns, while fly-half Juan Martin Hernandez dropped three goals and centre Felipe Contepomi kicked 11 points.
Contepomi punished Ireland by booting two penalties in four minutes, extending the Pumas’ advantage to a confident 27-15.
There was no way back for Ireland now, and even their sizeable army of supporters knew it.
From Ireland’s perspective, the closing stages had an almost funereal air to them, with coach Eddie O’Sullivan certain to face a prolonged post-mortem into what went wrong.
Ireland had travelled to France with such high hopes, but their whole campaign never moved out of first gear.
Argentina, who will meet Scotland in the last eight, look solid semi-final bets. with hernandez’s third drop-goal sealing an emphatic triumph.
Ireland though, on and off the pitch, could only reflect on why things went so horribly wrong.
