Felipe Contepomi insists performances are more important then records for his side, ahead of Friday night's meeting with Ireland at Aviva Stadium.

Argentina have never beaten Ireland away from home in 11 previous meetings, even if they can boast three World Cup victories in this fixture on neutral soil.

The sides meet on Friday night at the Aviva as they kickstart the second half of their Nations Championship campaign.

Like Ireland, Los Pumas are fourth in their table after a slow summer saw them beaten by England and Scotland at home, with their only win of 2026 coming against Wales in San Juan.

And as they look to get back on form, 12 months out from a Rugby World Cup in Australia, their head coach says breaking their losing streak in this fixture would be a bonus, rather than the chief motivator.

"It is the only team we have not beaten away from home yet," Contepomi said.

"It would mean a lot, but I think more so it is for us to try to get better, be competitive against the third [best] team in the world, and of the best four teams in the last 15 years or so.

"For us, it is just going and playing against one of those top teams in the world and being competitive and trying to impose our game or our game plan.

"Then the result, it comes with a lot of variables, the only one we control is the one that we evaluate ourselves from. That is imposing our gameplan and doing what we said we were going to do. If that takes us to a good result, much better."

While Argentina have never beaten Ireland here, they did win on their last trip to the Aviva, winning 28-24 against Andy Farrell's British and Irish Lions in June 2025 before that summer's tour of Argentina.

But the former Leinster out-half and assistant coach says his players can't draw much from that victory.

"Memories only, because I don't think you can bring much, unfortunately," Contepomi added.

"I think it was a great experience. Some of the guys that played that game, they are here again and obviously that brings them good memories. But every game starts from zero.

"It doesn't matter how good you were last weekend, how good you are next weekend, it's how good you are on the day. And for us, it starts from zero.

"We know the quality of the Irish team. We know the team we are playing against. We know how hard it is to beat them here, we've never beaten them here in Ireland. So we know the challenge we are up for.

"It will stay in our memories for the guys that were here, we enjoyed it, but we've turned the page, and we just keep moving."

Since the Nations Championship Argentina have continued to struggle for form, with defeats to Australia and South Africa followed by a 28-28 draw with the Wallabies in September.

Those results should come with a health warning though, with Los Pumas without many of their frontline talent for those games, which is reflected in a much-changed side this week.

While he is without injured full-back/out-half Santiago Carreras, and prop Thomas Gallo, Contepomi has been able to pick a strong team for Friday night, with only loosehead prop Boris Wegner and number 8 Pablo Matera retained from the draw with Australia.

"I think we have been inconsistent in certain times. In July we could not get out of the blocks as quickly as we wanted to.

"Then, obviously, because of welfare and so on, we rested a lot of players in August and September. We had some new guys.

"We could see a lot of new guys coming through and where they are at and how to get a bit more depth in our squad. Overall, I think we have been competitive, but we lost more than what we won. That is not good at this level or good enough.

"I think we are on the right track. Now, this November series is a good opportunity to play two of the best four teams in the world and also a team that has been improving a lot like Italy," Cintepomi said.

Argentina: Juan Cruz Mallia; Bautista Delguy, Justo Piccardo, Santiago Chocobares, Mateo Carreras; Tomas Albornoz, Gonzalo Garcia; Boris Wegner, Julian Montaya (capt), Francisco Moreno; Guido Petti, Pedro Rubiolo; Juan Martin Gonzalez, Marcos Kremer, Pablo Matera

Replacements: Leonel Oviedo, Mayco Vivas, Joel Sclavi, Efraín Elias, Juan Martin Scelzo, Simon Benitez Cruz, Geronimo Prisciantelli, Lucio Cinti.

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