The British and Irish Lions' dream of an unbeaten 2025 campaign is over even before they fly out to tour Australia after a jolting opening Test loss to Argentina in a thrilling Dublin curtain-raiser.
The party-pooping Pumas gleefully ignored all the hype that's surrounded the Lions as they gatecrashed the feelgood factor at Lansdowne Road on Friday night with a deserved 28-24 victory against Andy Farrell's rusty side.
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What left coach Farrell most disappointed about the opening misfiring salvo from his team was their lack of intensity, and he didn't hold back as he declared: "They were hungrier than us - and that's just not acceptable."
"It's disappointing. We've got to take the learnings from this," said Englishman Farrell, back at the Aviva Stadium where he has led Ireland to so much success.
Not for the first time, the Pumas, who crushed the Wallabies by 40 points the last time the teams met in the Rugby Championship, delighted in spoiling the send-off.
Before the Lions' 2005 tour to New Zealand, the Pumas had grabbed a 25-25 draw and they had the upper hand early again when, after Mendy's try had been answered by Aki's score, Albornoz struck on the counter-attack just before the break to give them their 11-point interval lead.
A Lions comeback looked set to be on the cards before a second half wonder try restored Argentina's lead and secured a remarkable win.
"It was a show from Argentina. Congrats, they deserved the win and capitalised on all the errors we made," said Farrell.
"There is a lot to do. You can't win a Test with that error rate. We lost enough balls in that game for a full tour, throwing balls that weren't on.
"There was good and bad throughout. We were just a little bit off - and I take responsibility for that."
Captain Maro Itjoe put the loss down to 'teething issues' as the new squad takes time to adjust to each other.
"I think we showed glimmers of what this team can be about," he said. "I think there were probably a few teething issues at first right now but we'll take our lessons.
"We're building a team and this was our first hit out...but we were nowhere near as consistent as we wanted to do and nowhere near as accurate as we wanted to be throughout the game.
"We'll learn and get better, we have the quality to do so."
