Hugo Keenan scored a hat-trick as Ireland preserved their unbeaten home record against Argentina with a comfortable 42-12 bonus-point victory in the Nations Championship.

The Pumas had famously stunned Andy Farrell’s 2025 British and Irish Lions squad on their previous visit to the Aviva Stadium, yet they entered the match having lost all 11 of their past meetings with Ireland in Dublin.

Felipe Contepomi’s side took an early lead when Mateo Carreras caught a cross-field kick from Tomas Albornoz over diminutive scrum-half Craig Casey to touch down in the left corner.

However, full-back Keenan crossed the line either side of a try by captain Dan Sheehan, allowing the hosts to establish a 21-5 advantage by half-time.

Sam Prendergast registered his maiden international try alongside five successful conversions, before Keenan’s third score and a powerful finish from Ronan Kelleher sealed a resounding win for the home team.

Carreras managed a late consolation try for Argentina, but the visitors' attempt to cause a surprise was hampered by yellow cards for Justo Piccardo and Efrain Elias, alongside an early head injury to skipper Julian Montoya.

This outcome was Ireland’s third victory from four Nations Championship matches, following summer successes against Australia and Japan and a defeat to New Zealand.

With head coach Farrell accepting that his side must improve to compete at next year’s World Cup, the opening fixture of the autumn provided an opportunity to assess several squad options.

Argentina’s 10th-minute score further subdued a flat crowd which was significantly below capacity.

However, Ireland swiftly hit back. Casey initially won a turnover penalty and then started a flowing team move from right to left which culminated with Mack Hansen sending Keenan racing across the try line.

Hooker Sheehan – captaining his country in the absence of the injured Caelan Doris – crashed over 10 minutes later after Nick Timoney was held up following a lineout maul.

Argentina lost hooker Montoya before falling further behind when Keenan collected another Hansen pass to dance past three defenders and powerfully pirouette over.

While the Pumas have a wretched record away to Ireland, they have won three of four World Cup meetings between the nations.

Their hopes of securing a landmark success on Irish soil were hampered further by centre Piccardo being sent to the sin bin in the 35th minute for not retreating following a penalty.

Sheehan was then denied his second try when he was forced into touch just before grounding in an incident which led to him and Montoya’s replacement Leonel Oviedo each departing for head injury assessments.

Fly-half Prendergast secured Ireland’s bonus point within two minutes of the restart, spotting a gap between Marcos Kremer and Juan Martin Gonzalez to superbly race away and dot down.

Keenan was unable to prevent Pumas wing Carreras scoring his second before completing his treble following quick hands from forwards Tadhg Furlong, Joe McCarthy and Ryan Baird.

Replacement hooker Kelleher then bulldozed over in the aftermath of Elias being sent to the bin for a high tackle on Keenan, with Ciaran Frawley converting.

Ireland prop Sam Illo – on for his home debut – became the third player shown a yellow card before Farrell’s men cruised through the closing stages ahead of upcoming appointments with Fiji and world champions South Africa.