In the last three seasons, one trait of Andy Farrell’s Ireland is that when they do lose, they tend to produce a response.

Since they really clicked at the tail end of the Six Nations in 2021, they have generally responded well to defeats, or even sluggish performances.

It’s what makes Friday’s visit of Argentina to Aviva Stadium all the more interesting. Felipe Contepomi’s side have beaten South Africa, New Zealand, France and Australia so far in 2024, and as such will have no fear of an Ireland team that are potentially vulnerable after a flat display against the All Blacks last week.

If Farrell has reason for optimism, it’s that he’s consistently got a response from his side after a defeat.

In 2022 when they were trounced by New Zealand in their first Test, they came back to win the series in some style. When there were fears of a post-World Cup hangover for the opening game of this year’s Six Nations away in France, they went to Marseille and secured a record win, while last summer they rebounded from a poor first Test defeat to South Africa, coming back to draw the series.

“That’s certainly been addressed,” Farrell said on Wednesday, as he referenced Ireland’s bouncebackability.

Farrell was speaking at Bective Rangers rugby club

“We’ve talked about that – our story – this week quite a bit. Lessons learned from those defeats have been really good for us actually in our development.

“It makes a loss that hurts a little easier to take if that’s the case so there’s a determination to make sure the same thing happens this week.”

In the days after that first Test defeat to the Springboks in July, both Farrell and his players have spoken about how the Ireland head coach went in hard on his players, delivering a verbal kick up the backside.

That approach can only work so often, and the sense is that this week’s analysis has been a bit more cerebral.

“The formula, honestly…I think one of our strengths has been how open and honest we’ve been and our appetite to learn from every situation, most games.

“I think subconsciously people tend to be a bit more lenient when you win and harder on themselves when they lose. We tend to be as hard as we possibly can – not hard – as honest as we possibly can most weeks, but I think in reality it’s human nature when you’re disappointed it concentrates the mind a little bit more.

“Our way, whether we’ve won or lost is just to get people talking in small groups or units, as a team everything is out in the open and being honest,” Farrell added.

Sam Prendergast is set to make his debut off the bench

In the anaylsis and meeting rooms, the right messages have been raised, while there has been a positive response on the training pitch also.

However, Farrell noted with a wry smile that the training pitch doesn’t always match up to the final product.

“Yeah, but honestly we trained well last week. It’s about converting.

“When you get punched on the nose, how you react is different to training and preparing well. We’ve trained well, we’ve been very honest and open in that regard, which tends to focus the mind in training anyway.

“But it was good last week, so it’s about dealing with the moments in front of our face as the 80 minutes progresses. That’s what we need to get better at.”

While there are four changes to the bench, two of which are debutants (Sam Prendergast and Thomas Clarkson), Farrell has resisted the urge to tweak much of his starting side.

Robbie Henshaw is the only player drafted into the first XV, replacing Bundee Aki.

And Farrell is challenging those starters to prove they deserve their place.

Ryan Baird comes into the matchday squad on the bench

“Some of them are lucky enough to get another chance to do that, others are coming in, and some of them played pretty well themselves, but there were too many people not right at their best last week and we’re hoping for everyone to improve.

“You’ve heard me say before that sometimes you drop people, and after a conversation five minutes later you wish you should have picked them because they get another chance.

“So, there’s a bit of that, you know, a bit of hurt and a reaction and that will come as well but at the same time we haven’t got thousands of players anyway.

“It is what it is, and we know where our bread’s buttered and we’ve got to act according to that and make the group stronger the whole time by giving them an opportunity either to right some wrongs or take an opportunity that’s in front of them,” he added.