First-half tries from Craig Gilroy, Jonathan Sexton, Richardt Strauss and Simon Zebo, followed by two from Tommy Bowe and another Sexton score after half-time, ended a run of five straight test defeats for Kidney’s side, who finished third in the 2012 RBS Six Nations. 

Although ahead 24-9 at the interval, the 53-year-old admitted an honest assessment of his side’s indiscipline at the breakdown enabled younger heads to keep out the Pumas in an improved second period.

And despite conceding two late tries to Tomas Leonardi and Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe Kidney insisted the gloss would not be taken off a fantastic performance in their last autumn international.

“There are a lot of young guys and we keep saying they are a joy to work with and they got their rewards today,” said Kidney.

“Things clicked for us and obviously the tries in the first half helped relax guys a little and the second half was going to be a more turgid affair but we managed to stick it out other than giving away the two tries in the last five minutes.

“We thought we had been keeping Argentina in it in the first half because in and around the breakdown they were disrupting us when we had the ball.

“And when they had the ball we were giving away penalties so we needed to put that right and we talked about getting our discipline right in the second half and we did that.

“Today we give our players credit for playing well and it wasn’t the Pumas’ day when you look at it but some days it works out and some days it doesn’t so I am just delighted it worked out well.”