England slip to defeat in Autumn opener
By Mark Stevens
6/11/22
England’s Autumn Internationals got off to a sobering start as they went 30-29 to Argentina at a packed Twickenham.
Eddie Jones’ side - which included the Exeter Chiefs quartet of Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Nowell, Sam Simmonds and Henry Slade - led 16-12 at the break, before Emiliano Boffelli and Santiago Carreras crossed in quick succession in the second half to turn the game on its head.
Replacement Jack van Poortvliet scored to repair some of the damage, but Boffelli's boot proved decisive in the closing stages.
It is only Argentina's second away victory over England - who claimed the opening try of the game through winger Joe Cokanasiga - following on from a success in 2006. It was also the latest landmark win in a season of success for the Pumas, following on from a first-ever win away to New Zealand earlier in the year.
But Argentina still finished bottom of the southern hemisphere's Rugby Championship and were expected to ease England into a month of fixtures that culminates with matches against the All Blacks and world champions South Africa.
Post-game, Jones reflected on his side’s showing, saying: “It’s a great opportunity for us because we’re under the pump now, which is good. I think we’ll respond really well so I’m looking forward to it. I thought at times we played really well, but then made some elementary mistakes and individual mistakes that invited them back into the game. In the end it was a ‘you kick a penalty goal, I’ll kick a penalty goal' type of game.
"We don’t have to worry about confidence. It’s about repeating the good things well. We did enough good things out there. We did some silly things, but we can get those out of the game and that sometimes happens when you try too hard. In the lead up to the game I thought the attitude to be the best team we can be was really good, and sometimes that can manifest itself into trying too hard.
"I’m not sitting here thinking we’ve got really strong problems within the team. I think we dominated that game for the most part and I feel the team went out and played the game we wanted to play. We made some silly mistakes but can change those things pretty easily, they’re controllable."
The two teams next meet in September in their opening pool match of the Rugby World Cup.
