England 29 Argentina 30
A first win for Argentina against England in 13 years, a first at Twickenham since 2006 and a sober reminder that Eddie Jones’s side are considerably behind a number of their rivals with less than 12 months to go until the World Cup.
Jones has insisted England will be keeping things up their sleeve between now and next year’s tournament but the old gag about where Napoleon keeps his armies springs to mind, so little did England showcase in front of their supporters.
Instead, Argentina struck with two fine second-half tries through Emiliano Boffelli and Santiago Carreras and weathered the briefest of England comebacks to clinch victory. Boffelli was superb throughout, finishing with 25 points such was his accuracy from the tee. It was their ability to edge back in front whenever England retook the lead that will please Michael Cheika the most – and infuriate his old mate Jones to equal extent.
This defeat leaves England with four defeats from their last six matches, the resilience shown in the second two Tests against Australia not evident enough here and there will be question marks over Owen Farrell’s captaincy due to his side’s inability to close the match out. Ultimately, it is the torpor from which England so often struggled to emerge that concerns the most.
England have developed a habit of starting campaigns slowly. Jones blames the fact that he is selecting from so many different clubs that every time they come together international habits must be learned again. Add in the biblical weather in southwest London and it must be said Twickenham was hardly abuzz with anticipation in the minutes before kick-off.
In the opening stages kicking from deep was the order of the day. There is a sense of excitement within the England camp of a midfield comprising Marcus Smith, Farrell and Manu Tuilagi but early on the latter was starved of the ball. Indeed, on the first four occasions Smith touched the ball he kicked it. On the fifth, he passed to Farrell, who put his foot through it instead. It paid off though because Santiago Carreras was penalised for obstruction on Freddie Steward and suddenly England were camped in Argentina’s 22.
Argentina held firm, thanks in the main to Juan Martín González’s rip on Billy Vunipola, who for all his endeavour struggled badly to hold on to the slippery ball, and soon after Boffelli kicked the visitors into a 3-0 lead. Farrell and Boffelli exchanged quick-fire penalties after silly mistakes from both sides at the restart but come the quarter mark, England began to put the ball through hands.
Joe Cokanasiga, in particular, looked busy and it was he who scored the opening try on 25 minutes. Ben Youngs’s clever kick in behind was taken over by Mateo Carreras and from the ensuing scrum, Cokanasiga took a short ball from his scrumhalf and thundered through Jerónimo de la Fuente and Pablo Matera.
It was a 12th try in 13 Test appearances for Cokanasiga, all but two of which have come at Twickenham. He has played so little for Bath over the last few years that you wonder why Jones perseveres with him at times, but then you see him turn in a performance like this and the penny drops. Certainly he has all the physical attributes to develop into the Test winger Jones hopes he can.
England could not shake their habit of letting Argentina back in just after scoring, however, and a third Boffelli penalty kept the home side’s lead to a point. Much to Ellis Genge’s delight, a powerful England shove on Argentina’s put-in gave Farrell the chance to push the lead out to four at the break – about as much as they deserved but with little room for comfort.
England were out of their comfort zone entirely when Boffelli finished off a peach of a try in the left-hand corner to wrestle back the lead. It was a simple enough lineout move on the right but Matías Moroni’s pullback pass to Santiago Carreras had England reeling and Boffelli had the pace to finish.
After Santiago Carreras’ try with just under half an hour to go, seizing on the loose ball near halfway after a Farrell pass went to ground and scampering to the line, England were in the danger zone, eight points down against a Pumas side with their tails up.
Suddenly the Twickenham crowd were animated, enlivened by the prospect of defeat, and they did not have to wait long for something to shout about. Jack van Poortvliet had been on the pitch – for his home England debut – merely seconds but spotting space in behind and around the edges of the ruck, he darted towards the line and had the speed to get there. For all its complexities, rugby can be a simple game. Farrell and Boffelli again traded a pair of penalties before Argentina’s shrewd game management sealed a famous win. – Guardian
