The last time the sides met was in 2005 when the team played to a 25-25 draw. 

The British and Irish Lions admittedly didn’t have their best possible team on the field after Farrell decided to give the majority of the players, who participated in the English Premiership and URC finals last Saturday, the evening off.

Los Pumas struck early with tries by Ignacio Mendy and Tomas Albornoz, with Bundee Aki going over for the hosts that gave the Pumas a deserved 21-10 halftime lead.

Lo festeja todo un país ???? pic.twitter.com/i5MENXVRIO

— Los Pumas (@lospumas) June 20, 2025

But Farrell must have fired up his players in the dressing room, as they came out guns blazing in the second half. The Lions regained the lead after a penalty try and a Tadhg Beirne score, but Santiago Cordero put Argentina back in front with another great team try and secured the win for the visitors – their first win in eight attempts, six of which were in tours of South America.

After the match, Farrell was full of praise for Argentina.

“You can try and throw it all around and say we had plenty of opportunities and we should have done better, but the story of the game is we compounded too many errors and weren’t able to put the pace on the game that we wanted to because of that,” added Farrell.

The British and Irish Lions will travel on Saturday to Australia and must regroup in time for their tour opener against Western Force in Perth on 28 June. Their first Test against the Wallabies Down Under is on the 19th of July.

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger cg