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Argentina 23-26 England: England overcome Pumas to win Rugby World Cup bronze-medal match
England completed their Rugby World Cup campaign with a victory as they narrowly overcame a proud Argentina performance in the third-place play-off in Paris.
Ben Earl slid over as England shot out to an early 13-0 lead, but Argentina clawed their way back and were briefly ahead through Tomas Cubelli and Santiago Carreras tries, before England’s Theo Dan charged down a kick and crossed. Owen Farrell’s boot kept England’s noses in front as he exchanged penalties with Nicolas Sanchez in a nervy finale.
Backed by a believing crowd, Argentina launched a late assault on England’s line but Sanchez pushed a penalty to tie the scores wide, allowing Steve Borthwick’s side to finish France 2023 with a win.
After seeming set to stroll to victory early on, there was heartfelt relief among England’s players as the final whistle blew. It means England’s campaign ends as it began. Seven weeks ago, they overcame the Pumas 27-10 in the heat of Marseille.
Three minutes into that game, facing 77 minutes without the sent-off Tom Curry and with five defeats in their previous six games behind them, things looked grim for England. But they ground their way to victory on that occasion to kick-start a campaign that came within three minutes and one point of beating South Africa in the semi-finals to make Saturday’s showpiece.
Several of England’s young guns pressed their cases for future inclusion in a game free of knockout pressure, but higher on quality than the teams’ previous meeting. Hooker Dan impressed with his energy and appetite for work, while Marcus Smith was enterprising and incisive in attack, even if not all of his ideas paid off.
There had been speculation that Henry Arundell, the scorer of five tries in the pool-stage thrashing of Chile, might challenge the national record of six tries in a single World Cup, achieved by Chris Ashton in 2011, or even rival this edition’s top-scorer Will Jordan, who has crossed eight times in total. However, he did not touch the ball once in the first half and gave away a penalty with a duff kick when afforded space for the first time in the second.
Line-ups:
England: Smith; Steward, Marchant, Tuilagi, Arundell; Farrell (capt), Youngs; Genge, Dan, Stuart, Itoje, Chessum, Curry, Underhill, Earl.
Replacements: Ford for Tuilagi (56), Lawrence for Arundell (66), Care for Youngs (51), Rodd for Genge (50), George for Dan (54), Cole for Stuart (50), Ribbans for Chessum (70), Ludlam for Curry (50).
Argentina:Mallia; Boffelli, Cinti, De la Fuente, M Carreras; S Carreras, Cubelli; Gallo, Montoya (capt), Kodela, Pagadizabal, Rubiolo, Gonzalez, Kremer, Isa
Replacements: Moroni for Cinti Luna (47), Sanchez for S. Carreras (56), Velez for Cubelli (51), Sclavi for Gallo (66), Creevy for Montoya (56), Bello for Gomez Kodela (61), Alemanno for Rubiolo (66), Bruni for Isa (47).
Referee: Nic Berry (Australia)
Assistants: Andrew Brace (Ireland) and Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)