Irish fly-half Jonny Sexton was the star of the show, collecting 18 points courtesy of a try, conversion, two penalties and a dropped goal.

Sexton opened the scoring after two minutes, slotting a short-range penalty and they stretched their advantage when Denis Fogarty crashed over for the first try of the game shortly afterwards.

Sexton added a drop goal before Argentina gave away penalty for leaving their feet two minutes later - offering the fly-half an easy shot at goal and a 14-0.

Darren Cave capitalised on some prolonged Irish pressure to eventually touch down for the second try of the game, which Sexton converted to make the score 21-0.

A brawl broke out in the 44th minute that nearly resulted in an Irish send-off, but instead gave Mieres a  shot at goal which he converted from over forty metres out register the first points for his side.

A great break from inside centre Keith Earls resulted in Jonny Sexton scoring a well-worked try under the posts, and the fly-half converted his own score to make it 28-3.

Argentina scored their first try of the afternoon with a well timed pass that saw Gabriel Ascarate across in the 69th minute, although a missed conversion gave Ireland a 20-point buffer.

Ireland put a final stamp on the game with an attractive try which resulting in Ian Keatly touching down in the corner. The conversion was missed but Ireland won convincingly 33-8.

A late brawl marred proceedings seeing Juan Pablo Lagarrique and Michael Ross sent off by referee Chris Henshall in the final minutes of the game.

Irish skipper Bob Casey commented: "We are delighted with the effort we put in. You could see in the first half what we were trying to do and we could have had three or four more tries.

Man of the Match Sexton added, "It was a good way to end the tournament. That's three Plate wins in a row so we have to go up a step next year."

Argentina's captain Juan Ignacio Gauthier was disappointed with a fourth place finish, saying: “It was very hard because we didn't have the ball in the first half and they scored a lot of points.

"This competition was very important for us because we get to compete against professional players and although it was hard we learnt a lot."