LIVE: British & Irish Lions v Argentina
The Aviva Stadium is sold out despite the extortionate ticket prices, which really were a disgrace to call a spade a spade.
The 2005 home game in Cardiff offset the cost of the New Zealand tour to the tune of over €14 million at the time, so you can imagine how much this fixture will be worth 20 years on.
At the same time, having enjoyed the atmosphere for a couple of hours, you'd kind of wonder why this is only the second time the Lions have done this: it's a no-brainer from a business perspective!
Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
There are loads of people over from Britain but as the team is read out here, the Irish lads are getting by far the biggest cheers.
Finlay Bealham got the biggest reception of the lot — until Bundee Aki!
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Irish Examiner
34 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Fans live their best lives as Lions lose out on historic Dublin opener
Go ahead, scoff. Plenty will. 'The British and Irish Lions'. The very phrase tends to get up the nose of a sizeable portion of the population. Some of them are even embedded in rugby's everyday community. But this felt like an … event. It just hit differently. Call them an anachronism, or a corporate machine, but you can't fake a sense of occasion. There was something quirky and inherently giddy about the sight of Baggot Street and Beggar's Bush awash with that famous sea of red. And with the subsequent colonisation of the three-tiered verdant spread of seats inside the stadium itself. Here, in Dublin, was the canvas we had seen projected on our screens so many times down the years when so many thousands of travelling fans from these islands have laid claim to vast chunks of Loftus Versfeld, Eden Park or Suncorp Stadium. Friday night's game against Argentina marked the first time the famous touring team had ever played a game on Irish soil. It's a rare enough treat across the Irish Sea, too. This was just the third sighting hereabouts since before the haunted trip to New Zealand in 2005. Word, and modern ticketing systems, had it that over half of those in the full house of 51,700 had bought their way in from outside of Ireland. Proof of it was in the smattering of kilts and leeks and in the smorgasbord of accents that abounded in D4. One guy was dressed wig to toe in a kit from the tourists' 1970s heyday, his movements as he skipped up the steps with his tray of beer not exactly prompting the iconic images of a JPR or a JJ in full flight, but we'll forgive him that. Pints. Sunshine. The Lions. People here were living their best lives. Jeer if you must, but there is something to be said for groups from the Welsh Valleys, Middle England, the Scottish Borders and Ireland north and south having the craic together like this. It shouldn't work? You're right, but it does. What of it? One discordant note caught the ear when a group of lads, decked in uniform Lions jerseys, approached a hat and scarf stall on the corner of Raglan Road and Elgin Road. 'Irish hats please,' one of them said, 'everyone thinks we're English.' The warm-up, so often a scene of minor interest, was in itself a means of familiarisation with a cool tableaux: Bundee Aki and Sione Tuipulotu running practice lines on one side, Maro Itoje and Tadhg Beirne engaging in a second row clinch for a simulated scrum. Fantasy rugby, but for real. It was Beirne, Munster's finest, who plucked the kick-off from the warm city air just after eight o'clock and it was met by a guttural roar, a release, that put you in the mind of the opening race at Cheltenham or midnight on New Year's Eve. What followed was a deathly hush. An emotional peak and pitch had been achieved and there was nowhere else to go in that moment but back to zero. Or maybe it was a combination of the sweltering weather and the hours so many had spent in the city's bars. There was plenty of stop-start, some caused by spills, others by TMO checks or HIA calls. But that was to be expected given the ad hoc DNA that is in the Lions and a Pumas team that was playing as a collective for the first time in seven months. Sprinkled around all that was some real quality. Both teams showed some exhilarating skills with ball in hand. Bundee Aki's opening try for the Lions followed a dizzying game of hot potato in contact with Luke Cowan-Dickie, Marcus Smith, Sione Tuipulotu and Fin Smith all fingertipping the pill on. Argentina saw that and raised it with two sumptuous tries, both of them on the break. Tomas Albornoz and Santiago Cordero claimed the points in question but to focus on the finishes would be like gushing over the frame that holds the Mona Lisa. The Wallabies have shown signs of rebirth under Joe Schmidt in the last year but concerns remain over the quality of challenges available to the Lions before the Test series. So maybe being 21-10 down here at the break, and then 28-24, was no bad thing. Losing 24-28? Not so great, but hardly disastrous either. There was one genuinely lovely moment approaching the 74th minute when Owen Farrell, son of Lions head coach Andy and a man was felt hounded out of international rugby by persistent abuse, popped up on the big screen and got one of the night's biggest cheers. One of England's finest, loaded with love by a Dublin crowd. Quite the night.
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RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Early Lions setback as Argentina claim famous win in Dublin
The British and Irish Lions were beaten by Argentina for the first time as their tour to Australia encountered an early setback with a 28-24 loss in Dublin. Trailing 21-10 at the interval, Andy Farrell's men went on to produce their most effective rugby but they could not break stubborn opponents ranked fifth in the world in front of a sold-out Aviva Stadium. It was an eventful night for the Irish contingent involved. Two of the three Irish starters – Bundee Aki and Tadhg Beirne – scored in either half, with prop Finlay Bealham part of a Lions scrum that looked strong in the first half in particular. Among the replacements, Tadhg Furlong made a welcome return to competitive action. The tighthead, now on his third Lions tour, hadn't played since Leinster's Investec Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints in early May and came on for Irish team-mate Bealham on the hour mark. Rónan Kelleher and Mack Hansen, making his Lions bow, were also introduced by Andy Farrell. Berine's second-half try created a path to victory but Argentina's ruthless counter-attacking swept Santiago Cordero in for the match-winning in the 59th minute. It is the Pumas' only success in the rivals' eight meetings and the first time the Lions have lost their tour opener since 1971. The Lions showed a willingness to attack in a promising sign ahead of their arrival Down Under, but their accuracy failed to match their ambition and they were often guilty of overplaying. Fin Smith was among their standout players in a performance that suggests Finn Russell has serious competition for the out-half duties against the Wallabies, while wing Tommy Freeman shone early on. The Lions' greatest weapon was their scrum with props Ellis Genge and the afore-mentioned Bealham submitting Argentina's front row, but their line-out needs urgent attention ahead of their clash with Western Force next Saturday. Any gripes that the Dublin sendoff was little more than a money spinner were quickly forgotten amid a exhilarating start that saw both lines come under pressure – and the tension never eased until the final whistle. Luke Cowan-Dickie appeared to have finished a rolling maul but the try was disallowed for a knock on by the England hooker and it was the Pumas who were first to strike. Duhan van der Merwe had made some storming early runs but he was among those at fault for an opening in the Lions' defence, enabling the dangerous Iganacio Mendy to dart over. Sione Tuipulotu was the next to be denied a try by a knock on, but there was no stopping a surging Aki in the 19th minute as Argentina became swamped by waves of red shirts running at the line. A Tomas Albornoz penalty propelled the Pumas back in front but the Lions were threatening to cut loose through their endeavour in attack. Marcus Smith was alert to a threatening Argentina grubber and there was more pressure to come with pick and goes testing their resolve before another three points from Albornoz extended the lead to 14-10. And there was worse to come for Farrell's men on the stroke of half-time when they failed to protect the ball at the back of a ruck and the Pumas pounced through Juan Martin Gonzalez with Albornoz completing a surgical finish. The Lions started the second-half with their tails up as Fin Smith continued to impress, but it was the pack who made their presence felt by mauling their way to a penalty try with Mayco Vivas also being sent to the sin bin. Tuipulotu helped set up the field position with a barnstorming run while Smith was beginning to find space. Genge stormed upfield as the Lions continued their transformation and now they had found the killer instinct with Beirne charging through a gap. But Farrell's team could not pull clear and when Van der Merwe's defensive shortcomings were exposed again, this time by a dropped high ball, Argentina pulled the trigger with Cordero rounding off a sublime counter attacking try. The Lions dominated the closing stages but could not find a way through.
