‘It's important to me because my surname is Irish’: Argentina ready to make history against Ireland

"We feel we can make history but we know Ireland are in one of their best moments ever."

‘It's important to me because my surname is Irish’: Argentina ready to make history against Ireland

Agustin Creevy has declared Argentina ready to claim their first ever win in Dublin against an Ireland side enjoying "one of their best moments ever".

Captain Creevy has backed the Pumas to shock Joe Schmidt's outfit and make history on Saturday, at the eighth attempt.

Argentina have beaten Ireland three times at Rugby World Cups, in 1999, 2007 and in the 2015 quarter-final - and now Creevy believes his men can end their Dublin duck.

And the former Worcester hooker revealed his distant Irish roots as another personal motivation to vying to end the Test year with a pivotal victory.

"We hope to change that run, knowing that we have never won here," said Creevy.

"We feel we can make history but we know Ireland are in one of their best moments ever. Probably it will be a more than interesting game for us.

"We are used to playing more and more games every year because of the calendar we have.

"For us, there's a big motivation to play this game, considering what playing against Ireland means to us, more so than this being the last game of the season.

"I don't know why there is a spiky rivalry between the two teams. The World Cup games were big moments and important games.

"Ireland have had to fight and work really hard to be where they are in terms of rankings, and we are the same. Perhaps that's why we are at similar levels.

"And it's important to me, because my surname is Irish.

"A distant relative contacted my grandfather through Facebook, so we do still have some contact with Ireland.

"It's not close, but there are links there. So it means a lot to be here."

Argentina ended a run of seven Test defeats with a 31-15 win over Italy last weekend, and are now gunning to end their 2017 international calendar on a high at a sold-out Aviva Stadium.

Creevy hopes the Pumas can pull off a repeat of their 43-20 World Cup 2015 quarter-final win over Ireland, that left head coach Daniel Hourcade in tears.

"We have played better against Ireland at World Cups but we've been unable to do it here," said Creevy.

"It would be great to repeat what we managed in 2015 here, it would be very important given the context of where we are and that we haven't been getting results recently.

"And also it's a chance to win where we never have before, and also beat a team like Ireland that we respect a lot."

PaperTalk: Can Nemo dethrone Crokes and what can be done with internet trolls?

Peter McNamara, Rob McNamara and Eoghan Cormican discuss the racist online abuse of Republic of Ireland international Cyrus Christie and assess Sunday's Munster club final clash of Munster giants Dr Crokes and Nemo Rangers.

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