England defeat Argentina again to finish third at Rugby World Cup

THIRD PLACE: England’s Ollie Lawrence celebrates after winning.Pic Credit ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

England 26 Argentina 23

At least there was no going through the motions, no hang-dog clocking-on for begrudging labour and for that we can be grateful.

There was enough edge in proceedings to ensure that that this was no token consolation match but it was all rather fractured and messy, very much in keeping with the relative standing of these two teams, who are far from being front-line contenders for honours.

It was a meeting of scufflers. We can be sure that there will be more fluency and class on show in Saturday night’s final and that is how it should be. These two teams gave what they had to offer but the final whistle was something of a relief.

There was proof enough, however, that Steve Borthwick’s side have regained a sense of themselves. Of course it was a fag-end match, the bronze play-off, of dubious status in theory but England’s performance does bode reasonably well for the future as does their third-place finish.

There were some positives for Borthwick after the misery of his first nine months in office. Ben Earl is no longer a stop-gap arriviste no.8 but a fully-fledged threat in that role, busy and influential as he showed when picking a wonderfully clever line to score the first try of the evening.

Earl has been one of England’s success stories. Sam Underhill has been a fading force but he showed just what he can still offer with a barnstorming performance.

Marcus Smith will never be dominant in the air at full-back but there were enough feints and interventions from him to illustrate once again what merit he brings to any attack.

There was an initial strength about the scrum that was missing in the latter stages of last weekend’s pip-squeak defeat to South Africa. England will not challenge the very best unless they make their scrummage more durable and consistent. They began to wobble again towards the end. It is a costly deficiency.

There have been few more grounded or good-guy players than Ben Youngs, a stalwart presence for Leicester, England, the Lions and, most importantly, his family, standing down from Lions duty to be with brother Tom whose wife was suffering from cancer, from which she subsequently died.

This was Youngs’ 127th and final cap. It was not his finest night in the shirt but he deserved his send-off.

There was plenty of spirited opposition in Argentina ranks after a lackadaisical opening, steadying the ship before making their own mark through a try from scrum-half, Tomas Cubelli, just before half-time.

It was a well-worked sequence apart from the one glaring defect that it involved a pass that was at least a metre forward. Quite what officials are watching in their TMO studio beggars belief. A gridiron quarter-back would have been proud of that pass.

England had the bit between the teeth early on but allowed the Pumas to come back at them. There was also not enough desire to get the ball to the wings. Henry Arundell was a forlorn spectator on the wing. The youngster needs to go looking for action more often.

There was a nice bit of sinning and instant redemption from England hooker, Theo Dan, allowing himself to be outfoxed in the tackle for Santi Carreras’ try in the 42nd minute only to charge down the Pumas’ fly-half from the re-start to touch-down himself 60 seconds later.

Nicolas Sanchez had a chance to level the scores five minutes from time but for the first time in the tournament he fluffed the opportunity.

England: M Smith; F Steward, J Marchant, M Tuilagi (G Ford 56), H Arundell (O Lawrence 65); O Farrell (capt), B Youngs (D Care 51); E Genge (B Rodd 49), T Dan (J George 54), W Stuart (D Cole 49), M Itoje, O Chessum (D Ribbans 71), T Curry (L Ludlam 49), S Underhill, B Earl.

Argentina: J C Mallia; E Boffelli, L Cinto (M Moroni 46), J de la Fuenta, M Carreras; S Carreras (N Sanchez 57), T Cubelli (L Velez 51); T Gallo (J Sclavi 66), J Montoya (capt) (A Creevy 56), F G Kodela (E Bello 60) , G Petti, P Rubiolo (M Alemanno 66), J M Gonzalez, M Kremer, F Isa (R Bruni 46).

Referee: N Berry (Aus).