Nowell and Cowan-Dickie score in England victory

By Mike Smith

5/10/19

Exeter Chiefs Jack Nowell, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Henry Slade all came off the bench, to inspire England to a comprehensive 39-10 victory over Argentina at the Tokyo Stadium.

England were frustrated early on and a penalty conceded for offside within the first five minutes saw the Argentines take the lead, regrouping it was just four minutes later that George Ford put Jonny May in for an easy score and England ahead for the first time in the game.

The result was then put well and truly in England's hands after Argentina's second-row Tomas Lavanini was sent off for a high tackle on England captain Owen Farrell. From that point, it was one-way traffic with tries from Elliot Daly and Ben Youngs putting the favourite 15-3 ahead at half-time.

Just three minutes after the interval, England secured the bonus points with George Ford getting over the game line, piling further pressure on the South Americans.

Argentina did manage to cross England's game line when Moroni cut inside and put the ball under the posts making the most of a good spell of possession.

Cue Exeter Chiefs stars Nowell, Cowan-Dickie, and Slade. Just moments later, fast feet from Nowell bouncing off tackles from four Argentines, the all-action winger was over in the corner. His first game back after injury and with his team-mates joining him in celebration. 

It was just left for Exeter Hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie to put the icing on the cake for England with the Cornishman emerging from the bottom of the pile, after a rolling maul for the third time during this World Cup campaign to give the scoreboard a pleasing look for England and a place in the quarter-finals.

Speaking after the game Eddie Jones eluded to his side being exactly where he wants them to be at this point in the competition.

"We're exactly where we wanted to be - we're 15 points after three games. We've played in front of a fantastic crowd at Tokyo Stadium and it's another great day for the World Cup.

"We just need to simplify our game a little bit. With them having one-off we were probably just trying to push the game a little bit too much and were a bit rusty after two easy games and a long break and that came out a bit. Second half we got a bit of a better rhythm."

England Captain Owen Farrell, was also impressed by how his team-mates controlled the game after a fast start from Argentina.

"It was scrappy at times, I thought there was a decent amount of control, we let the game get a little frantic, but we took back control got some territory and it told in the end."