IT TOOK LESS than 10 minutes for the Lions to start looking like an Andy Farrell team.
Luke Cowan-Dickie nearly scored the opening try of the game from a close-range maul, only to knock on over the line, meaning a goal line drop-out for Argentina.
Farrell’s Ireland have made clever, detailed set-piece plays from goal line drop-out receipt one of their calling cards in recent years, so this was always going to be an interesting moment.
Lo and behold, the Lions unveiled a smart play as they tried to cut the Pumas apart.
Number eight Ben Earl fields the Argentinian drop-out and begins working infield.
As with Ireland’s goal line drop-out plays, the initial carry is towards the middle of the pitch in a bid to split the defensive line.
Earl is chopped down on the Argentina 10-metre line and Luke Cowan-Dickie, Maro Itoje, and Ellis Genge arrive to resource the breakdown, as is their role in this play.
While that’s happening, the rest of the Lions players are getting ready to strike on second phase.
Over to scrum-half Alex Mitchell’s right, a four-man pod has formed.
As we discussed last year in this article, four-man pods have become increasingly common in rugby in recent times, having previously faded away as three-man pods took over.
Ireland are among the teams who have been sprinkling four-man pods into their game in instances like the one above, a structured situation they can plan for.
What’s slightly different about this example is that a centre – Bundee Aki – is inserted into the 4-pod, rather than it being made up exclusively by forwards.
Again, this isn’t completely new. Premiership champions Bath have been inserting centres into their 4-pods at times this season, while the Highlanders of New Zealand have also done it on a clever play from 22-metre drop-out receipt.
This is the first time we’ve seen a Farrell team putting a back into one of their pods.
Mitchell fizzes an excellent pass across the face of Finlay Bealham and Tadhg Beirne – who naturally attract defenders given their positioning – to Aki.
Aki then has the option of tipping a short pass outside to flanker Tom Curry [green below] or sweeping the ball out the back to out-half Fin Smith [yellow].
As we see below, Aki goes out the back to Smith, who starts behind Bealham and then accelerates out behind Aki, showing late to receive the ball.
Marcus Smith, who starts vertically in line with Aki in the 4-pod, bounces wider out behind Jac Morgan running a hard line off Fin Smith.
While lots of forwards are excellent catch-passers and decision-makers, Aki has plenty of experience executing in this kind of scenario, so it makes sense to use him in this role.
As it transpires, the Pumas do a good job in defence here as they get plenty of bodies into the line initially.
Pablo Matera and Justo Piccardo then do a great job of jockeying out to ensure the Lions don’t get a break, with their efforts allowing Igancio Mendy to tackle Sione Tuipulotu after passes from Fin Smith – who sweeps the ball behind Morgan – and Marcus Smith.
Even without a linebreak, the Lions’ attack has started well as they get Argentina chasing.
Farrell’s men now switch into their phase-play shape and we get the first look at their framework in this area of the game.
Farrell’s Ireland have operated with a 1-3-2-2 framework in phase-play attack in the past and the Lions look set to employ something very similar.
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As they now play back to their left, we see the 3-pod [red below] set up with Beirne at the heart of it, something that is familiar to Irish fans.
Further out is the 2-pod [green below] made up of Itoje and Genge.
Within the 3-pod, Beirne can carry himself, tip-on a pass to Bealham on his outside, or tip-in to Curry on his inside.
Instead, he sweeps the ball out the back to out-half Smith.
As we can see above, Smith then sweeps the ball out the back of the 2-pod to Aki as the Lions look to play immediately out towards the far edge.
Whereas in a 1-3-2-2 shape, we might expect the wide 2-pod of forwards to be connected and close to each other, the difference with this Lions team is that the final two forwards appear to be operating quite independently.
As we can see below, Earl [orange] is shifting out towards the 15-metre channel, while Cowan-Dickie [blue] is further infield.
This was a repeated trend in this game, with the Lions’ widest forward often hugging the touchline to such an extent that the framework was more of a 1-3-2-1-1.
We get another example below in the second half after Genge carries wide on the left.
Genge, on the ground, is the left-hand side 1 in the framework.
Earl, Bealham, and Itoje [red] make up the 3-pod
Curry and Beirne [green] form the 2-pod, and replacement hooker Ronán Kelleher [blue] is the first 1 on the right.
Out of shot above is the widest Lions forward, Henry Pollock, who is hugging the right-hand touchline.
Pollock is highlighted in orange below and the distance between Kelleher and himself is clear.
This 1-3-2-1-1 framework means the Lions always have some stretch in their attack even when their wings go roaming, with certain forwards tasked with filling those 1 roles in phase-play attack.
The framework also means that the Lions can play from one side of the pitch to the other on back-to-back phases because the defenders have so many possible threats and layers of attack to worry about.
It’s something worth following in the coming weeks but it was apparent in this game that the Lions wanted their second-widest forward to be further infield, offering a front-door option on the next layer off the 2-pod.
Coming back to the first instance, Aki hits Cowan-Dickie running that direct front-door line before the hooker turns to find right wing Tommy Freeman.
Freeman has worked hard to get into this position, swinging all the way from the right-hand side.
As highlighted below, Freeman starts the passage wide on the right, reads that he’s not needed in the breakdown after Tuipulotu’s initial carry, so gets swinging across behind the attack, adding another layer.
That work-rate is something Farrell demands from his wings, who simply have to roam across the pitch looking to create overloads against the defence.
Freeman takes the superb offload from Cowan-Dickie and connects with left wing Duhan van der Merwe, who offloads back to Freeman.
The Lions appear to have Argentina’s defence on the ropes but the Pumas scramble well, as they did all game.
After a strong carry from Genge, the Lions look for the killer blow through Fin Smith’s cross-kick to flanker Morgan, who has held the width out on the right.
Argentina wing Mendy does a superb job to deny the Lions, fielding skillfully over his head just in front of Morgan.
Smith might have liked to get a little less hangtime on his kick, giving Mendy less time to get across, but it’s just a wonderful defensive play.
It would have been a stunning Lions try bearing two hallmarks of a Farrell team: a slick goal line drop-out play and then the snappy shape and interplay. But the Lions just fail to seal the deal after positive build-up, which was the main theme of this game.
Indeed, when they used the same goal line drop-out play in the second half, they failed to convert a glaring try-scoring chance.
As we see above, fullback Marcus Smith fields the goal line drop-out this time but immediately pops the ball to Earl for the first carry.
All the same players take up the same roles as the 4-pod sets to Mitchell’s right and the two Smiths begin bouncing out the back of the pod.
This time, the Pumas are in much poorer defensive shape.
They’re overresourced on the far side of the Earl carry and there is an instant danger as Mitchell fizzes the same face pass across Bealham and Beirne to Aki.
The Ireland centre accelerates and draws Matera before playing a short pass to Curry.
Out-half Smith gets a little disconnected from Aki here, so the option to pass short to Curry is all the stronger.
Unfortunately for the Lions, Curry can’t take the ball cleanly and loses control of it as Pumas centre Lucio Cinti turns in to tackle him.
Fin Smith, Morgan, Marcus Smith, Freeman, and Sione Tuipulotu are all outside Curry here. If he can hold on and then offload, the Lions almost certainly score, even with the Pumas backfield scrambling.
This kind of frustrating handling error prevented Farrell’s men from opening up time after time against Argentina. The Lions repeatedly forced offloads and passes to let the Pumas off the hook.
Tuipulotu breaks into the Argentinian 22 below but offloads into Pumas’ hands.
In the instance below, it’s Cowan-Dickie who finds a Puma with his offload in the Argentinian 22.
There were many other similar examples and the Lions were livid with themselves for this sloppiness.
Farrell wants his side to attack with intent, but he’s not someone who encourages offloading at will.
“Andy’s been hot on, ‘You’ve got to see your pass and know someone is there,’” said Curry post-match on Friday.
Having carried out their review of the game, the Lions will surely feel that they had more than enough opportunities to break the Pumas only for their handling and decision-making to let them down at the key moment.
There may have been an element of overeagerness to impress in those errors, as would be understandable on opening night for the 2025 Lions. However, Farrell’s scathing criticism of his team underlined that he expects much better.
He must have enjoyed the scoring passages from his team, with Aki putting the finishing touch to the Lions’ first after some slick handling.
Cowan-Dickie sweeps the ball back from the 3-pod to Marcus Smith, who does an excellent job of holding his feet as the ball comes to him.
Indeed, Smith almost backs off in the face of the blitz from Pumas number Joaquín Oviedo, buying himself time to flick the ball on to Tuipulotu.
As Smith is doing so, Beirne’s running line is important.
Beirne is an option for the short front-door pass from Smith and that lures Pumas centre Piccardo in onto Beirne initially.
That in turn means Tuipulotu can get outside Piccardo, drawing Cinti infield before the Lions centre pops a basketball-style pass over Cinti’s head to Fin Smith.
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Smith then does something similar to get the ball away over Mendy’s head.
Aki has to turn to gather Smith’s pass and considers passing to Freeman in clear space, but with Piccardo working across, instead backs himself to finish.
For many players, passing would have been the right decision, but Aki has the power to make his decision right.
Farrell and his coaches probably enjoyed the more direct edge to their team’s third try, which came soon after their powerful maul earned a penalty try.
The Lions struck for their third from a right-hand-side lineout close to the halfway line, with Earl carrying well before they bounced back against the grain in an 11 pattern.
Replacement scrum-half Tomos Williams skips the ball across the face of Itoje to find Genge thundering forward on a line back against the grain.
Pumas prop Boris Wenger sights Genge late and can’t tackle him as the explosive English prop batters his way through, powerfully fending Julián Montoya on his way.
The Lions should probably score on the next phase, only for Marcus Smith to opt against passing to van der Merwe in the left corner, but they seal the deal on fourth phase.
As highlighted above, Williams has three forwards running to his right in Itoje, Bealham, and Beirne.
Williams picks his option wisely as the Pumas bite down on Itoje and Bealham, with the Welsh scrum-half fizzing the face pass wider to Beirne surging into space.
It’s a superb pass from Williams and a smart line from Beirne, who picks out the blind spot on Pumas prop Francisco Coria Marchetti’s outside shoulder.
The directness of this try was surely satisfying for the Lions, who will be working hard to deliver balance in their attack.
Their 1-3-2-1-1 framework allows them to shift the ball into the wide channels, but the Lions coaches will be stressing the need to be direct and physically confrontational too. And even with directness in tighter parts of the field, clever passes and lines like the ones above can cause havoc.
In the instance below, the Lions do damage in the shortside as Freeman runs a smart line off Williams coming back against the grain.
Exploring the shortside is another hallmark of Farrell’s Ireland side, with Jamison Gibson-Park hugely influential in that regard, and the Lions probably didn’t look there enough against Argentina.
However, Freeman picks out a blind spot on the outside of Matías Moroni here to make a break.
Below, we see something extremely similar from replacement flanker Pollock.
Again, the Lions have just made a carry infield when they bounce back into the shortside and Williams hits Pollock on that hard line into the blind spot outside a defender looking in at the ball.
It takes bravery to run these lines. If the defence get a good early read, then the likes of Beirne, Freeman, and Pollock could be dealing with very sore ribs.
These lines were evidently a strategy from the Lions and something worth keeping an eye on.
Farrell’s men had plenty of possession in their opening game, giving us lots of chances to see their attack. That said, they probably need to have greater balance to their approach in the future, combining more kicking with their intent to play with ball in hand.
Then when they do attack with ball in hand, not throwing it away blindly should go a long way towards making the Lions a better team.
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Lions show Ireland-like glimpses but sloppy touches blunt attack
IT TOOK LESS than 10 minutes for the Lions to start looking like an Andy Farrell team.
Luke Cowan-Dickie nearly scored the opening try of the game from a close-range maul, only to knock on over the line, meaning a goal line drop-out for Argentina.
Farrell’s Ireland have made clever, detailed set-piece plays from goal line drop-out receipt one of their calling cards in recent years, so this was always going to be an interesting moment.
Lo and behold, the Lions unveiled a smart play as they tried to cut the Pumas apart.
Number eight Ben Earl fields the Argentinian drop-out and begins working infield.
As with Ireland’s goal line drop-out plays, the initial carry is towards the middle of the pitch in a bid to split the defensive line.
Earl is chopped down on the Argentina 10-metre line and Luke Cowan-Dickie, Maro Itoje, and Ellis Genge arrive to resource the breakdown, as is their role in this play.
While that’s happening, the rest of the Lions players are getting ready to strike on second phase.
Over to scrum-half Alex Mitchell’s right, a four-man pod has formed.
As we discussed last year in this article, four-man pods have become increasingly common in rugby in recent times, having previously faded away as three-man pods took over.
Ireland are among the teams who have been sprinkling four-man pods into their game in instances like the one above, a structured situation they can plan for.
What’s slightly different about this example is that a centre – Bundee Aki – is inserted into the 4-pod, rather than it being made up exclusively by forwards.
Again, this isn’t completely new. Premiership champions Bath have been inserting centres into their 4-pods at times this season, while the Highlanders of New Zealand have also done it on a clever play from 22-metre drop-out receipt.
This is the first time we’ve seen a Farrell team putting a back into one of their pods.
Mitchell fizzes an excellent pass across the face of Finlay Bealham and Tadhg Beirne – who naturally attract defenders given their positioning – to Aki.
Aki then has the option of tipping a short pass outside to flanker Tom Curry [green below] or sweeping the ball out the back to out-half Fin Smith [yellow].
As we see below, Aki goes out the back to Smith, who starts behind Bealham and then accelerates out behind Aki, showing late to receive the ball.
Marcus Smith, who starts vertically in line with Aki in the 4-pod, bounces wider out behind Jac Morgan running a hard line off Fin Smith.
While lots of forwards are excellent catch-passers and decision-makers, Aki has plenty of experience executing in this kind of scenario, so it makes sense to use him in this role.
As it transpires, the Pumas do a good job in defence here as they get plenty of bodies into the line initially.
Pablo Matera and Justo Piccardo then do a great job of jockeying out to ensure the Lions don’t get a break, with their efforts allowing Igancio Mendy to tackle Sione Tuipulotu after passes from Fin Smith – who sweeps the ball behind Morgan – and Marcus Smith.
Even without a linebreak, the Lions’ attack has started well as they get Argentina chasing.
Farrell’s men now switch into their phase-play shape and we get the first look at their framework in this area of the game.
Farrell’s Ireland have operated with a 1-3-2-2 framework in phase-play attack in the past and the Lions look set to employ something very similar.
As they now play back to their left, we see the 3-pod [red below] set up with Beirne at the heart of it, something that is familiar to Irish fans.
Further out is the 2-pod [green below] made up of Itoje and Genge.
Within the 3-pod, Beirne can carry himself, tip-on a pass to Bealham on his outside, or tip-in to Curry on his inside.
Instead, he sweeps the ball out the back to out-half Smith.
As we can see above, Smith then sweeps the ball out the back of the 2-pod to Aki as the Lions look to play immediately out towards the far edge.
Whereas in a 1-3-2-2 shape, we might expect the wide 2-pod of forwards to be connected and close to each other, the difference with this Lions team is that the final two forwards appear to be operating quite independently.
As we can see below, Earl [orange] is shifting out towards the 15-metre channel, while Cowan-Dickie [blue] is further infield.
This was a repeated trend in this game, with the Lions’ widest forward often hugging the touchline to such an extent that the framework was more of a 1-3-2-1-1.
We get another example below in the second half after Genge carries wide on the left.
Genge, on the ground, is the left-hand side 1 in the framework.
Earl, Bealham, and Itoje [red] make up the 3-pod
Curry and Beirne [green] form the 2-pod, and replacement hooker Ronán Kelleher [blue] is the first 1 on the right.
Out of shot above is the widest Lions forward, Henry Pollock, who is hugging the right-hand touchline.
Pollock is highlighted in orange below and the distance between Kelleher and himself is clear.
This 1-3-2-1-1 framework means the Lions always have some stretch in their attack even when their wings go roaming, with certain forwards tasked with filling those 1 roles in phase-play attack.
The framework also means that the Lions can play from one side of the pitch to the other on back-to-back phases because the defenders have so many possible threats and layers of attack to worry about.
It’s something worth following in the coming weeks but it was apparent in this game that the Lions wanted their second-widest forward to be further infield, offering a front-door option on the next layer off the 2-pod.
Coming back to the first instance, Aki hits Cowan-Dickie running that direct front-door line before the hooker turns to find right wing Tommy Freeman.
Freeman has worked hard to get into this position, swinging all the way from the right-hand side.
As highlighted below, Freeman starts the passage wide on the right, reads that he’s not needed in the breakdown after Tuipulotu’s initial carry, so gets swinging across behind the attack, adding another layer.
That work-rate is something Farrell demands from his wings, who simply have to roam across the pitch looking to create overloads against the defence.
Freeman takes the superb offload from Cowan-Dickie and connects with left wing Duhan van der Merwe, who offloads back to Freeman.
The Lions appear to have Argentina’s defence on the ropes but the Pumas scramble well, as they did all game.
After a strong carry from Genge, the Lions look for the killer blow through Fin Smith’s cross-kick to flanker Morgan, who has held the width out on the right.
Argentina wing Mendy does a superb job to deny the Lions, fielding skillfully over his head just in front of Morgan.
Smith might have liked to get a little less hangtime on his kick, giving Mendy less time to get across, but it’s just a wonderful defensive play.
It would have been a stunning Lions try bearing two hallmarks of a Farrell team: a slick goal line drop-out play and then the snappy shape and interplay. But the Lions just fail to seal the deal after positive build-up, which was the main theme of this game.
Indeed, when they used the same goal line drop-out play in the second half, they failed to convert a glaring try-scoring chance.
As we see above, fullback Marcus Smith fields the goal line drop-out this time but immediately pops the ball to Earl for the first carry.
All the same players take up the same roles as the 4-pod sets to Mitchell’s right and the two Smiths begin bouncing out the back of the pod.
This time, the Pumas are in much poorer defensive shape.
They’re overresourced on the far side of the Earl carry and there is an instant danger as Mitchell fizzes the same face pass across Bealham and Beirne to Aki.
The Ireland centre accelerates and draws Matera before playing a short pass to Curry.
Out-half Smith gets a little disconnected from Aki here, so the option to pass short to Curry is all the stronger.
Unfortunately for the Lions, Curry can’t take the ball cleanly and loses control of it as Pumas centre Lucio Cinti turns in to tackle him.
Fin Smith, Morgan, Marcus Smith, Freeman, and Sione Tuipulotu are all outside Curry here. If he can hold on and then offload, the Lions almost certainly score, even with the Pumas backfield scrambling.
This kind of frustrating handling error prevented Farrell’s men from opening up time after time against Argentina. The Lions repeatedly forced offloads and passes to let the Pumas off the hook.
Tuipulotu breaks into the Argentinian 22 below but offloads into Pumas’ hands.
In the instance below, it’s Cowan-Dickie who finds a Puma with his offload in the Argentinian 22.
There were many other similar examples and the Lions were livid with themselves for this sloppiness.
Farrell wants his side to attack with intent, but he’s not someone who encourages offloading at will.
“Andy’s been hot on, ‘You’ve got to see your pass and know someone is there,’” said Curry post-match on Friday.
Having carried out their review of the game, the Lions will surely feel that they had more than enough opportunities to break the Pumas only for their handling and decision-making to let them down at the key moment.
There may have been an element of overeagerness to impress in those errors, as would be understandable on opening night for the 2025 Lions. However, Farrell’s scathing criticism of his team underlined that he expects much better.
He must have enjoyed the scoring passages from his team, with Aki putting the finishing touch to the Lions’ first after some slick handling.
Cowan-Dickie sweeps the ball back from the 3-pod to Marcus Smith, who does an excellent job of holding his feet as the ball comes to him.
Indeed, Smith almost backs off in the face of the blitz from Pumas number Joaquín Oviedo, buying himself time to flick the ball on to Tuipulotu.
As Smith is doing so, Beirne’s running line is important.
Beirne is an option for the short front-door pass from Smith and that lures Pumas centre Piccardo in onto Beirne initially.
That in turn means Tuipulotu can get outside Piccardo, drawing Cinti infield before the Lions centre pops a basketball-style pass over Cinti’s head to Fin Smith.
Smith then does something similar to get the ball away over Mendy’s head.
Aki has to turn to gather Smith’s pass and considers passing to Freeman in clear space, but with Piccardo working across, instead backs himself to finish.
For many players, passing would have been the right decision, but Aki has the power to make his decision right.
Farrell and his coaches probably enjoyed the more direct edge to their team’s third try, which came soon after their powerful maul earned a penalty try.
The Lions struck for their third from a right-hand-side lineout close to the halfway line, with Earl carrying well before they bounced back against the grain in an 11 pattern.
Replacement scrum-half Tomos Williams skips the ball across the face of Itoje to find Genge thundering forward on a line back against the grain.
Pumas prop Boris Wenger sights Genge late and can’t tackle him as the explosive English prop batters his way through, powerfully fending Julián Montoya on his way.
The Lions should probably score on the next phase, only for Marcus Smith to opt against passing to van der Merwe in the left corner, but they seal the deal on fourth phase.
As highlighted above, Williams has three forwards running to his right in Itoje, Bealham, and Beirne.
Williams picks his option wisely as the Pumas bite down on Itoje and Bealham, with the Welsh scrum-half fizzing the face pass wider to Beirne surging into space.
It’s a superb pass from Williams and a smart line from Beirne, who picks out the blind spot on Pumas prop Francisco Coria Marchetti’s outside shoulder.
The directness of this try was surely satisfying for the Lions, who will be working hard to deliver balance in their attack.
Their 1-3-2-1-1 framework allows them to shift the ball into the wide channels, but the Lions coaches will be stressing the need to be direct and physically confrontational too. And even with directness in tighter parts of the field, clever passes and lines like the ones above can cause havoc.
In the instance below, the Lions do damage in the shortside as Freeman runs a smart line off Williams coming back against the grain.
Exploring the shortside is another hallmark of Farrell’s Ireland side, with Jamison Gibson-Park hugely influential in that regard, and the Lions probably didn’t look there enough against Argentina.
However, Freeman picks out a blind spot on the outside of Matías Moroni here to make a break.
Below, we see something extremely similar from replacement flanker Pollock.
Again, the Lions have just made a carry infield when they bounce back into the shortside and Williams hits Pollock on that hard line into the blind spot outside a defender looking in at the ball.
It takes bravery to run these lines. If the defence get a good early read, then the likes of Beirne, Freeman, and Pollock could be dealing with very sore ribs.
These lines were evidently a strategy from the Lions and something worth keeping an eye on.
Farrell’s men had plenty of possession in their opening game, giving us lots of chances to see their attack. That said, they probably need to have greater balance to their approach in the future, combining more kicking with their intent to play with ball in hand.
Then when they do attack with ball in hand, not throwing it away blindly should go a long way towards making the Lions a better team.
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Analysis Argentina Attack Lions Rugby