6 hours ago
20
Key events
Well, that had pretty much everything: tries, a glimpse of a comeback, a record number of yellow cards in a test match, plenty of off the ball aggro, and a final TMO controversy.
Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
NO TRY! ENGLAND WIN!
The ref accepts the TMO’s conclusion, the game is over. The Argentina players and crowd are fuming.
83 mins. LAST SECOND TMO DRAMA! The ball moves to Delguy’s wing for a dive into the corner. Caluori looks to take him a little high, but the ref is happy with it. As he continued past that tackle the dive for the corner under the covering tackle of Slade has the ball down as he clatters the corner flag.
It’s incredibly tight, and the on-field decision is try, so we need conclusive proof it is not one. The ref is publically saying it’s a try while looking at the replay, while the TMO says it’s grounded on the touch in-goal line….
82 mins. 22 phases in, they remain in the 22…
81 mins. The home side creep forward a few metres before Tommy Freeman tackles a runner high. On the advantage Benitez-Cruz is through a gap and runs forty metres to end the advantage with Argentina in the England 22.
80 mins. The ball is in Pumas hands, but they are on their 22 and going nowhere.
TRY! Argentina 24 - 31 England (Justo Piccardo)
79 mins. Ball back in play with Argentia in the 22. They probe the right side of the defence and Piccardo runs through a gap to the line.
The game still has not restarted, as Janse Van Rensburg was knocked out and needed treatment. He’s off the field and we hope all is not too serious.
Some pushing and shoving from the forwards stops the clock. This game simply will not end despite the result more certain than current on-pitch captain Pablo Matera’s racism.
78 mins. Scrum option taken by the Pumas from five metres. They are rumbling forward before the front rows pop up which Ref Gardner believes was Argentina first, so they must play away or reset. They don’t play it away, so we have another scrum as the game ebbs away from the home side for good and all.
A win was never coming, but the home side have wasted 4 minutes freely opting for scrums. Daft.
YELLOW CARD! Emmanuel Iyogun (England)
77 mins. England are pinged for pre-engaging leading to a quick-tap attack from the Pumas. They are up to the line but Petti loses the ball as he reaches out to score.
But it was on an advantage for another offside and Iyogun is sent from the park.
76 mins. Scrum goes down, no penalty either way, reset time. England languid as you like.
75 mins. A Pumas scrum under the England posts takes ages to form up with the visitors not exaclty in a rush. Ref Gardner lectures them about pre-engaging without stopping the clock, which won’t bother England at all.
YELLOW CARD! Henry Pollock (England)
73 mins. Back the Pumas come to the England 22, and the old “always offside” issue presents itself. Pollock paying the price for the multitude of offences,
70 mins. It’s not to damn England’s tries with faint praise as they have been far more zippy in attack, but Argentina are largely useless wihtout the ball, particularly at the edges, even without the sin-bins.
TRY! Argentina 17 - 31 England (Immanuel Feyi-Waboso)
69 mins. An overthrow by Argentina at the lineout reaches Earl who burst forward to set up a good position. The ball moves briskly left to the winger who runs through with ease.
68 mins. Albornoz sends it high from the lineout, but it’s too deep and allows Feyi-Waboso to mark it in the 22. Delguy tries some pasty afterwards but the England man is not interested.
66 mins. Alex Coles is back on, so it’s now England with a two man advantage. Argentina have a penalty for side entry from Pollock, which Albornoz kicks to touch on the England 10m line.
YELLOW CARD! Santi Carreras (Argentina)
The fullback went for the van Poortvliet pass one handed but didn’t get enough on it to prevent the try. That makes no differences to the ref who bins him straight after the conversion.
TRY! Argentina 17 - 26 England (Marcus Smith)
62 mins. The return of England to the 22 healds a try, van Poortvliet spinning a long pass to Smith to dive over in the right corner.
Fin Smith slams a brilliant conversion over from the touchline under a chorus of whistles.
61 mins. Slade takes a very long time to send the penalty kick from the park as he seeks to eat up van Poortvliet’s sin-bin. Finally it leaves his boot and that heralds the return of the scrum-half.
It’s 14 v 14 out there now and England may well have ridden the worst of the Puma resurgence.
YELLOW CARD! Joaquin Oviedo (Argentina)
60 mins. The TMO has re-entreed the chat with another check-check, this time for a croc roll by Oviedo. A review demonstrates it clearly is one and he’s off.
59 mins. Argentina return to the England 22, but they are too lateral which allows the defence to track the ball across and resource the ruck enough to win a turnover. Pollock boots the ball clear for some brief respite.
57 mins. The crowd are in full voice, and even fuller boos when Pollock enters the match from the bench. What a change in this third quarter of the game.
YELLOW CARD! Alex Coles (England)
Coles is given his marching orders. It’s a two point game and England have five minutes to navigate with thirteen players.
PENALTY TRY! Argentina 17 - 19 England
The ref and TMO agree with the analysis and the try is awarded!
55 mins. Albornoz steps and goes through a gap and looks to be free to the line before his ankles are gripped by Slade on the cover tackle. As he attempts to offload to Matera two metres from the line it bobbles loose. It looks like Coles flapped at it for a deliberate knock-on and it may have prevented a try…
54 mins. Possession returns to the Pumas and they repeatedly pick and go at pace from sequential rucks, each runner getting further over the gainline every time. They set up camp in the 22 as England start to be caught offside with regularity.
52 mins. The ball goes to the corner and what a time for Montoya to lose his first lineout of the previous three weeks! Martin gets up and spoils it, winning the ball back and allowing a clearance from Slade.
YELLOW CARD! Jack van Poortvliet (England)
50 mins. As Albornoz basketballed a pass over the head of van Poortvliet in the 22 the England man slaps it forward one handed and it’s a very obvious yellow card.
49 mins. Albornoz has repeatedy run more often this half and he’s making metres each time as the English defence has to reset their expectations of the attack. His latest run feeds Garcia then Oviedo on a big support line to crash further forward into the England half, the disarray forcing Pepper into a ruck infringement as he attempts to slow the ball down.
46 mins. It’s a far brighter start to this period from the home side as they take the game back to England. There are more phases in the opposition half that test the defence more, but Albornoz then overcooks a kick that rolls dead.
TRY! Argentina 10 - 19 England (Mateo Carreras)
44 mins. The Pumas maul is held up close in forcing Garcia to play it and race to the line. He’s stopped short but Carreras following up forces over through the tacklers. Must be all that energy he saved in the sin-bin.
Conversion added.
42 mins. A couple of carries from the Pumas lead to a clearing kick from Garcia. England have a few runs off their own before a knock-on puts the home side back in possession.
Albornoz breaks free but can’t best Marcus Smith as he attempts to round the fullback. However England are offside and a 5m lineout is incoming.
Second Half!
Off we go again as Argentina receive the ball.
“This is a spicy old game, Lee.” ventures Guy Hornsby. “The first try was a lot of handbags but also a cheeky forearm onto Freeman after the touchdown and a definite hand into someone’s face. It’s exactly what you’d expect from this fixture, even before Wednesday ramped it up. It’s very promising so far, with the pack putting the hits in, and Atkinson and Slade showing signs of promise in midfield. Feyi-Waboso is a glorious handful. Let’s see how this ages in the next hour.”
It’s going OK so far Guy, if you’re English that is.
