England’s new boys whitewash the Pumas
ENGLAND made sure of a 2-0 whitewash of Argentina with a 35-25 over the Pumas in Santa Fe last night.
Eddie Jones’ men let the hosts in on three occasions but scored four tries of their own through Charlie Ewels, Piers Francis, Danny Care and Will Collier while George Ford had another fine day with the boot.
“It wasn’t a great game from us but we maximised every error Argentina made and were able to score points,” said Jones.
“It’s been a great Test Series and Argentina should be credited for the way they played.” The Rugby Paper columnist Jeremy Guscott, studio analyst for BBC, said: “It has been brilliant from an England perspective given all the players missing. These young players truly deserved to win those two games.”
ENGLAND’S highly effective mix of gnarled veterans and young pups claimed their second win in a week over the Pumas to take this sparkling mini series 2-0 and send Eddie Jones away for his summer break a happy man.
The match started pretty much as last week’s finished with a flurry of quality scores although the general tone was just a bit tighter and physical. Certainly, there was a mean look about Pumas captain Gus Creevy that suggested England were in for a tougher examination up front.
England nonetheless opened the scoring with a textbook set piece try from a line-out ten yards out when Charlie Ewels won excellent quick possession and Hughes made fast ground before Joe Launchbury made further yards at which point the busy Ewels, looping around, popped up on his shoulder to complete the touchdown.
Ford converted but Argentina struck back immediately with their big carries punching big holes in the England defence before Sanchez spotted the dangerous Joaquin Tuculet in space. The flying fullback made no mistake with a fine converted try. It was a score that woke up the rather subdued – by Argentinian standards – crowd but straight from the restart the Pumas coughed up a cheap penalty which Ford happily put between the posts.
The tit for tat continued with Sanchez hitting back with a 40m penalty which was originally deemed to have gone wide but there was enough doubt for John Lacey to ask the TMO to have a second look, after which three points were awarded. No real controversy, the kick looked good if very high which made the adjudication difficult.
No TMO was needed moments later, however, when England carelessly went offside and Sanchez slotted a much easier kick. England were under the pump at this stage, especially at scrumtime and Argentina should probably have gone further ahead when Sanchez missed a 40 metre kick.
As they did last week, having soaked up a good deal of pressure some of it of their own making, England then hit back in style which suggests both confidence and a good deal of ticker from some of the younger players as well as the more experienced stalwarts. First Ford, the new ultra-consistent goal kicking George Ford, landed a nice medium range penalty after superb work from Sam Underhill and Chris Robshaw who wrapped up Tuculet and forced a penalty as Tuculet found himself pinned and unable to release.
And then Mike Brown let rip down the right touch-
line as first he brilliantly red a crossfield kick from Sanchez and then sprinted hard and angled his run nicely to allow Pier Francis to make himself available on the outside.
A class try which rather contradicts those who sometimes complain that Brown fails to finish off his strong running with the right pass at the right time. It was also further evidence that Francis knows how to run a support line after his excellent assist to George Ford’s try last week.
Perhaps less impressive though was his attempted chip through which led to the first score of the second half. Flanker Pablo Matera read the kick well and blocked it and then showed Maradona-like skills to dribble the ball down the touchline and claim a levelling score, Sanchez being unable to kick the touchline conversion.
This England team are never down for long though and although the Pumas started to build a head of steam it was Dylan Hatley’s side that struck with the slickest of counter attacking tries from 60 metres out after the Pumas had thrown a loose pass
Ford, keeping cool, picked out Brown who was travelling at speed and Brown again chose the perfect moment to offload to Danny Care on the inside.
Spectacular stuff but back the Pumas came with a try from Emiliano Boffelli after smart incisive work from Jeromino de la Fuente before Quins prop Will Collier, looking remarkably composed, came on and within a minute was being rumbled over for another well worked lineout try.
Better still the immaculate Ford dropped a sweet 40m dropped goal with his right foot with six minutes left to give them the buffer the needed. Job done.