Home rivals warm up for Six Nations with victories

Josh Van Der Flier scored twice as Ireland capped a fruitful autumn by grinding out an emphatic 53-7 win over wasteful Argentina in Dublin.

Fellow forwards Andrew Porter, Caelan Doris, Dan Sheehan, Cian Healy and Tadhg Beirne also claimed tries to help Andy Farrell’s men stretch their unbeaten run to eight games.

Meanwhile, the exceptional Joey Carbery – filling in for injured skipper Johnny Sexton – backed up his match-winning cameo in last weekend’s stunning success over New Zealand by kicking 18 points.

Los Pumas have history of upsetting Ireland following three shock wins at World Cups but faded fast from a promising start.

Mateo Carreras’ early try was all Mario Ledesma’s men had to show from a difficult afternoon, while lock Tomas Lavanini was dismissed 20 minutes from time for a dangerous challenge on Irish replacement Ryan Baird.

Joe Marler believes England’s future is in safe hands after watching Eddie Jones’ young guns show their fighting instincts to edge South Africa at Twickenham.

A clean sweep of victories in the Autumn Nations Series was completed in dramatic circumstances as Marcus Smith landed a penalty with just over a minute left to topple the Springboks 27-26 on Saturday.

It went some way to avenging England’s defeat in the 2019 World Cup final but just as importantly it was engineered with emerging prospects such as Smith, Freddie Steward and Jamie Blamire at the forefront.

“I was really pleased for a lot of the youngsters who dug deep and showed grit to stay in the fight rather than just giving up,” veteran prop Marler said.

Wales recorded a third successive victory over Australia as they ended their Autumn Nations Series campaign by beating the 14-man Wallabies 29-28 in dramatic fashion.

Substitute Rhys Priestland’s penalty with the final kick of a frantic game thwarted Australia and sent a 68,000 Principality Stadium crowd wild.

Hooker Ryan Elias and centre Nick Tompkins with Dan Biggar scoring 16 points through four penalties and two conversions. scored tries for Wales.