RUGBY: And so to the latest instalment of this Irish-Latin derby. Familiarity is said to breed contempt, but in the case of Ireland and Argentina it has bred respect, albeit perhaps respect with a little enmity. And when these two go toe to toe, we know it will be taut and tight. A friendly? This will be real Test match rugby.

It also has a certain novelty value to it, in that it will be the first rugby international played entirely under lights at Lansdowne Road since Samoa won here 40-25 six years ago. Floodlit matches add to the atmosphere, and a 5.30 kick-off should ensure that a full house are also well lubricated and in full voice.

The pity is that the forecast is for rain, and possibly by the bucketload. While it won't be on the scale of the meeting here two years ago, when the breaststroke was more useful than an offload, Eddie O'Sullivan and the Irish team won't have wanted that.

"I'd prefer it was dry," admitted the Irish coach, though yesterday he was already resigned to battening down the hatches and getting on with it. "I think it's going to be a bit of a monsoon, but it was the same two years ago. You've just got to get on with it, make adjustments to your game based on what you can do and what you can't do, and go out and play. It'll be raining on them as well. Same pitch. Same ball. So no excuses."

There's never been 10 points between the sides, and given the forecast, there's little chance of today being any exception.

The conditions will probably impose more limitations on Ireland's greater variety of attacking set-piece ploys. There'll probably be more ball-carriers going to ground, more time for the Pumas' defence to reorganise, less chance to offload, more opportunities for those arch-spoilers to delay ball or force turnovers and, something the famed Puma scrum, the bajadita, will relish, more put-ins.

In what is likely to be a game of trench warfare, this looks like being one for the foot soldiers, with the set-pieces key battlegrounds. (And Emmet Byrne, called up as cover for Marcus Horan last night, who is suffering from a stomach bug, would relish even a cameo role).

It will be an area of concern for the cognoscenti, but then again whenever we've worried about the Irish scrum, it's generally held up.

Ireland have a superior lineout, and although conditions could reduce the tail option to Simon Easterby, Malcolm O'Kelly and co, Shane Byrne is a superior thrower to the otherwise brilliant Mario Ledesma (and, for that matter his deputy, Federico Mendez).

As they proved with their relentless late drive for a clinching second try in Marseilles last week, the lineout maul is another exceptional statement of Argentinian machismo. As it has also become an Irish virtue, there'll be no surprises if this is continually used as a means of drawing a line in the mud.

At half-back too, Agustin Pichot and Felipe Contepomi have more of a ball-carrying, running threat than Peter Stringer and Ronan O'Gara, who are better at bringing those outside into the game. Pichot, particularly, probed the blindside regularly last week and hounded Jean-Baptiste Elissalde to distraction.

As O'Sullivan reiterated yesterday, Argentina's ball retention is as good as anyone's (witness just six turnovers last week compared to France's 13), even if it seems, at times, that it's low-risk ball retention for the sake of it.

They are also more familiar with Ireland and Lansdowne Road, and less full of themselves, than the Springboks, although with this comes a recognition from their coach, Marcelo Loffreda, that, like the Pumas being potentially stiffer opposition for Ireland than the Boks, so too Ireland might be for them a bigger scalp than even the Grand Slam champions of Europe.

"It will be really different, first of all because of the climate. We know that it is going to be wet, with a slippy ball, and then there is a different structure to the game," said Loffreda. "We know that Ireland are very combative. They are fighters. They have big pride and we know they will front up. With France they could have a good day but they can have a bad day. We know it is going to be a more physical encounter."

In the heel of the hunt Ireland do have more strings to their bow, and, if they have to, this beefed up Irish pack will front up. Ultimately, it's hard to overlook the evidence of 13 wins out of their last 14 games at Lansdowne Road, and the knowledge that no Irish team of O'Sullivan's has lost to a side ranked below them.

It mightn't be too pretty, though.

Previous meetings: (1990) Ireland 20 Argentina 18; (1999) Ireland 32 Argentina 24; (WC) Argentina 28 Ireland 24; (2000) Argentina 34 Ireland 23; (2002) Ireland 16 Argentina 7; (2004 WC) Ireland 16 Argentina 15.

Odds (Paddy Power): 2/7 Ireland, 25/1 Draw, 5/2 Argentina. Handicap betting (= Argentina +9pts) 10/11 Ireland, 20/1 Draw, 10/11 Argentina.

Forecast: Ireland to win.