Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt suggested the absence of leaders such as Paul O'Connell and Johnny Sexton cost his team in the opening 15 minutes of their World Cup quarter-final defeat to Argentina when their opponents raced into a 17-0 lead.
Ireland bounced back with tries from Luke Fitzgerald and Jordi Murphy to draw within three points of their opponents by the 43rd minute before fading late on and losing 43-20.
"It probably reflected the tour de fource that has been demonstrated by the southern hempishere teams," Schmidt told RTÉ Sport after the game.
"We were desperate not to be part of what happened yesterday but we just didn't get the start that we needed, particularly with a group that was low on experience.
"The confidence got dented a little bit but I was incredibly proud of the way they fought their way back into the contest.
"In the 58th minute a [Ian Madigan] kick could have drawn us level, and might have allowed us to kick on.
"It wasn't to be and when you try too hard at the end, you throw a few things around, get over-committed and get loose.
"The confidence got dented a little, bit but I was incredibly proud of the way they fought their way back into the contest" - Joe Schmidt
"With the speed merchants they've got they finished another couple of tries, which was pretty hard to take, in the context of how much effort had been put in."
The Ireland coach suggested the loss of O'Connell, Sexon, Peter O'Mahony (all injury) and Sean O'Brien (suspension) was crucial in allowing Argentina to build such a big early advantage.
"That's where you need your experienced guys to settle things down, to give a little bit of direction and to keep things calm," said Schmidt.
"I felt we straggled around in that first 15 minutes. We didn't have a lot of structure.
"We got pretty tight defensively. We knew what was coming at us and I felt we could have been in control of that but to be fair to Argentina they brought both power and pace into the game.
"They won a lot of those first-20-minute collisions whether they had the ball or we had the ball.
"It was very difficult to make any momentum forward when we carried and it was very difficult to stop their momentum.
"Some of their big ball-carriers, [Pablo] Matera, [Leonardo] Senatore and [Tomas] Lavanini carried big and strong. They drew two, sometimes three tacklers and then got the ball to their speed merchants on the edge.
"Unfortunately it did make that first 15 minutes very difficult."
Argentina scored 20 unanswered points in as many minutes to close out the game, but Schmidt believed the concession of late tries to Juan Imhoff (his second) and Joaquin Tuculet was a reflection of Ireland's desperation as they chased the game.
"If we could have got that kick and at least drawn level it might have given us the confidence to keep control," he reflected.
"But in the last 15 minutes we were forcing things and chasing things and it's pretty hard to chase against a team that are really well organised, that have the sort of athletes they have.
"That allowed them to do a bit more damage on the scoreboard unfortunately.
"No matter what way it finished, if it finished today it was going to be disappointing. But it was exacerbated by that last 15 minutes."
Schmidt also praised the quality of Argentina's display. The Pumas now go on to play Australia in the semi-finals next Sunday.
"Their combination of power and pace made it very difficult for us to win the collisions either side of the ball" - Joe Schmidt
"It's pretty hard not to respect the performance that Argentina put on," he said. "Their combination of power and pace made it very difficult for us to win the collisions either side of the ball.
"That allowed them to get off to a very good start and we put ourselves under a lot of pressure."
"They demonstrated in the first half of their first pool game [against New Zealand] just how dangerous they are.
"They were probably a little unlucky not to be further ahead of the All Blacks and they pretty much came out and did the same thing to us.
"But they were further ahead [this time] and it made it a tough hill to climb from there."
