Preview: Pumas can pounce if Ireland aren't at their best

The reaction to last week's 23-13 defeat to New Zealand is a good barometer of what we’ve come to expect from this Ireland team.

It’s not long ago that a 10-point defeat against the All Blacks would have been viewed as a decent outing and something to build on, but not anymore.

The standard has been set in the last decade, first under Joe Schmidt and now under Andy Farrell.

A defeat isn’t a disaster, but it will be examined more forensically than it might have been a decade ago. Three defeats in five games means that hard questions are being asked, both of the short-term game plan and long-term strategy.

Speaking after last Friday’s defeat, Farrell was quick to stress that Ireland haven’t become a bad team overnight. And while he’s correct in saying they haven’t become a bad team, their dip in form hasn’t happened overnight.

The last five games have presented a consistent set of issues – spanning Six Nations, summer and autumn windows – with poor discipline ruining what is an otherwise world class defence, and a setpiece that is making their attack blunt.

In their last two games they’ve limited South Africa and New Zealand to one combined try and have given up just 11 tries in total across their eight games this year, ranking best among the world’s top-tier nations for 22 entries given up per game (6.4) and points conceded per 22 entry by their opponents (1.7).

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The issue is that while Simon Easterby’s defence is proving so hard to break down, their lack of discipline is allowing their