Solomona turns on style as England win thriller
This was the true definition of rugby chaos. A contest that veered between riproaring and frenetic in which the lead changed hands six times and was eventually settled by a try from Denny Solomona, one of 10 England players making their debut, with 100 seconds remaining.
England head coach Eddie Jones wanted a proper test and that is exactly what he got against a Pumas team that threw everything at his team of waifs and strays. It was wild, frenetic and utterly exhilarating, although the respective defence coaches will have palpitations for days to come. With 30 players unavailable to him, Jones described the performance as “one of the best team efforts I have been involved in.”
The ending was suitably dramatic. Rugby league recruit Solomona was at risk of making one of the most inauspicious debuts in modern times. His first two acts were to miss tackles that both resulted in Argentina tries. Yet with the clock ticking ever closer towards 80 minutes, he received the ball on the left wing, bounced off one tackler, stepped past another and then handed off the third to go under the posts. “Denny made two horrendous errors in defence but got one back,” Jones said. “He is going to be doing some defensive work next week. If you see him tackling tackle bags in the streets of Buenos Aires you know why.
“I thought it was an incredible game of rugby. I thought for our guys to win, that was a tremendous effort.”
There was so much encouragement for Jones to draw upon. Tom Curry, who at 18 was the youngest England player to start a match in 90 years, was a tearaway at the breakdown while flanker Mark Wilson, whose wife is due to give birth imminently, matched him stride for stride. Nathan Hughes, the No8, enjoyed his best game in an England shirt. Yet masterminding the whole performance was fly half George Ford, who scored 23 points.
Initially mistakes abounded, even among the more experienced members of the side as Ford kicked out on the full and Dylan Hartley knocked on. It was no surprise that Argentina struck first. From a line-out, the Argentina forwards drove on until Nicolás Sánchez spotted the space to thread a grubber kick past Marland Yarde for Emiliano Boffelli to score in the corner.
England eventually settled down through a pair of Ford penalties. Hughes then seized the initiative, spotting an Argentine ruck had not formed he picked up and charged down field. Alex Lozowski took it on and Ford recognised that Yarde was one-on-one versus tighthead prop Enrique Pieretto on the left wing. He supplied the pass and the Harlequins wing could not fail to finish.
Yet that lead was wiped out by halftime through a succession of English errors. A loose pass in midfield was turned over and despite some desperate scrambling defence, lock Tomas Lavanini drove under Hartley on the tryline for a converted score. Then right on halftime, Mike Brown kicked out on the full. Argentina won a penalty from the resultant line-out allowing Sánchez to put Argentina 17-13 up.
You would have thought that the pace of the game would slow down in the second half, but if anything it sped up. Ford kicked a penalty and England immediately went looking for more. It came from a delightful piece of skill from Henry Slade, who stepped past one defender and then put a perfectly weighted kick into the left-hand corner where Jonny May practically barged Brown out the way to score.
Still the game refused to the settle as Solomona was given the roughest of introductions to international rugby. First he and Curry let Martin Landajo slip through their grasp and the scrumhalf offloaded to centre Jeronimo De La Fuente for the try.
Worse was to follow as within 60 seconds, Solomona was left on his backside by flanker Javier Ortega Desio that led to full back Joaquin Tuculet going over. From 23-17 down, Argentina were ahead 34-23 in the blink of an eye.
It was Ford who dragged England back into the contest once more kicking a monster penalty from halfway before demonstrating a underrated turn of pace to scorch down the right-hand touchline. He could not convert his own try so the scores were level heading into the final ten minutes.
With Argentina camped on England’s tryline and a penalty coming, Juan Martín Hernández dropped back into the pocket to nonchalantly stroke over a drop goal.
That seemed to be that before Solomona redeemed himself with a sensational individual try to cap what must rank as the most madcap match of 2017.