IRELAND RUGBY BOSS Declan Kidney is this morning counting the cost of Saturday’s intense battle with the All Blacks at Lansdowne Road.

The hosts were beaten by 20 points despite a creditable display at the Aviva Stadium – but will now face Argentina in Dublin on Sunday without a host of top stars.

Luke Fitzgerald and Rob Kearney have been ruled after the Leinster backs sustained knee injuries. Fitzgerald is expected to be out for six weeks while a date for Kearney’s return has yet to be set.

And, worryingly, doubts also hang over the participation of skipper Brian O’Driscoll, Tommy Bowe and Gordon D’Arcy. O’Driscoll injured a shoulder while Bowe and D’Arcy have calf strains; an update on the trio’s fitness is slated for tomorrow.

Rory Best came off worst of all perhaps. His autumn schedule was ended when he sustained a fractured cheekbone. The Ulster hooker will undergo surgery tomorrow.

Fitzgerald though may be most disappointed having only recently returned to action. An IRFU statement read:

Luke suffered a medial ligament injury to his left knee. The damage is to the same knee that he injured last November, but this is a new injury and to a different part of the knee.

Rob Kearney also injured his knee and has suffered cartilage damage. He will undergo exploratory surgery this week to further determine the extent of the injury and the period of recovery that he will need, but is certainly ruled out of the game against Argentina.

Former Ireland player and manager Donal Lenihan, however, hailed the display as a marked improvement on the two previous November tests. He writes:

Ireland were simply unrecognisable from the displays against Samoa and South Africa, which, under the circumstances was not unexpected.

They delivered in all the key areas in terms of competing at the breakdown, having a clear vision of how they wanted to play, a structure and organisation in defence. They also lit that creative spark that had been dormant for too long.

The net result was an Ireland performance far superior in quality to anything seen in the Grand Slam season of 2009.

The Irish Times’ Gerry Thornley though, pin-pointed mistakes from the home side as key to the 20-point difference in the scoreline.

Ireland could trace every score in the first half to mistakes they originally made in possession, which makes the video analysis rewarding but underlines that you have to be close to perfection, for no other team on the planet so ruthlessly punishes mistakes.