Ireland host Argentina at the Aviva Stadium on Friday evening in the first of their three home matches this month in the Nations Championship schedule.

In their previous competition outing, Andy Farrell’s men suffered a bruising defeat against New Zealand in Auckland, while Los Pumas were narrowly beaten by England at the Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudades.

Match preview

Following a run of four consecutive victories to end their 2026 Six Nations campaign, including an impressive 42-21 win against England at Twickenham Stadium, Ireland will have mixed feelings with how they have begun the inaugural Nations Championship campaign.

Having picked up bonus point wins against Australia and Japan in each of their opening two matches, the Boys in Green headed into their heavyweight clash with New Zealand at Eden Park at the top of the Northern Hemisphere standings, but after enduring a 40-21 loss in Auckland, Farrell’s side likely require a flawless home schedule if they want any chance of claiming the competition crown.

As a result of their defeat to the All Blacks, Friday’s hosts head into their schedule on familiar territory having slipped to fourth in the table, though with the backing of a passionate Aviva Stadium crowd, who are yet to see a home loss in 2026, there is a good chance that Ireland will be fighting with France for top spot in the not so distant future.

Kicking off the home stretch against Argentina, who they have beaten in each of the previous four meetings between the sides, Ireland will be confident that they can send a message to their closest rivals by securing victory ahead of the weekend’s matches and start to build momentum before their seismic contest with South Africa in a fortnights time.

Much like their opposition, Argentina will be left feeling slightly underwhelmed with how their Nations Championship matches panned out on home soil in July, especially with some extremely difficult upcoming tests in this month’s Northern Hemisphere fixtures.

After falling to defeat against a strong Scotland side in Cordoba, Los Pumas did well to instantly strike back by posting a bonus point win over Wales, but having narrowly lost to England in their final home fixture, Felipe Contepomi’s men sit fourth in the Southern Hemisphere table at the midway point of the championship.

Despite coming from behind to draw with Australia in their latest outing, Los Pumas continued to struggle for form in their summer friendlies too, with defeats to New Zealand and South Africa meaning they have now won just one of their last seven matches.

With no wins in their previous eight away matches against Ireland, Argentina would need to make history to bounce back with victory on Friday evening, although Contepomi’s side did record a monumental triumph on their previous visit to Dublin, beating the British & Irish Lions 28-24 at the Aviva Stadium ahead of their tour of Australia last year.

Ireland Nations Championship form:

Ireland form (all competitions):  

Argentina Nations Championship form:

Argentina form (all competitions):  

Team News

Ireland have made a quartet of changes to the forward pack that was deployed against New Zealand as Andrew Porter, Ryan Baird, Nick Timoney and Sean Jansen come in for Tom O’Toole, James Ryan, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan.

Across the backline, Farrell has replaced Jamison Gibson-Park with Craig Casey at scrum-half, Jimmy O’Brien makes way for Mack Hansen on the wing and Robbie Henshaw comes in for Garry Ringrose in the centre.

While Ireland have made multiple changes to their starting lineup, there are various big names ready to come off the bench for the hosts, with Ryan, van der Flier, Gibson-Park and Bundee Aki all amongst the replacements.

In the scrum, Contepomi has rung the changes as captain Julian Montoya, Guido Petti and Marcos Kremer are the only players that started against England to also be named from the first whistle this Friday.

However, amongst the backs there are just two differences, as Santiago Chocobares comes in for Matias Moroni in the midfield and Juan Cruz Mallia replaces Santiago Carreras at full-back.

Ireland starting lineup:

15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Robert Baloucoune, 13 Robbie Henshaw, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Mack Hansen, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Craig Casey, 1 Andrew Porter, 2 Dan Sheehan, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 4 Joe McCarthy, 5 Tadhg Beirne, 6 Ryan Baird, 7 Nick Timoney, 8 Sean Jansen

Replacements:

16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Tom O’Toole, 18 Sam Illo, 19 James Ryan, 20 Josh van der Flier, 21 Jamison Gibson-Park, 22 Ciaran Frawley, 23 Bundee Aki 

Argentina starting lineup:

15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Justo Piccardo, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Tomas Albornoz, 9 Gonzalo Garcia, 1 Boris Wenger, 2 Julian Montoya, 3 Francisco Moreno, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 6 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Pablo Matera

Replacements:

16 Leonel Oviedo, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Efrain Elias, 20 Juan Martin Scelzo, 21 Simon Benitez Cruz, 22 Geronimo Prisciantelli, 23 Lucio Cinti

We say: Ireland 35-18 Argentina

Having been forced to dwell on their defeat at Eden Park for nearly four months, Ireland will be chomping at the bit to bounce back with a victory in front of a home crowd on Friday evening.

With Argentina struggling for form, we think it is difficult to see them causing an upset this week and are backing the hosts to climb further up the Northern Hemisphere table with a bonus point win in Dublin.