Challenge of the Pumas is a mind game

ENGLAND against Argentina is billed as the world’s No.2 team against semi-finalists from the last World Cup. Factually correct, but a shade misleading as the Pumas lost every game in this year’s Rugby Championship and are now globally ranked 10th behind Fiji. So England should win, without a doubt, just as they should beat Australia and Samoa on the next two Saturdays. For the players therefore the challenge this month is very much in the mind. How do they find the mental edge that exists in the biggest fixtures where fear of failure is so real? On those occasions your reactions are sharp and your mind finely tuned because you know any mistakes are going to be punished. But when you’re playing against sides you know you should beat, a part of you, however small, thinks you won’t punished and that if something does go wrong you will have another opportunity to rectify it. So my question for Eddie Jones (left) and his team is can you mentally get to the place you would be were you starting a three-Test series against the All Blacks? Do you have the ability to raise your motivation to that level when everyone is telling you these matches are home bankers? The Lions’ success in New Zealand has heightened expectation and I don’t have any doubt that right now England – and Ireland – could compete with NZ on neutral territory, where of course the 2019 World Cup is to be staged. But that is not today’s challenge. Great teams go into games they know they should win and showcase that inherent confidence in their performance without overstepping into arrogance. That’s the challenge. Let’s see what England have got.