MIKE CATT signed off his England tour here by laying the ghosts of his ineffectual display against the Pumas at Twickenham back in December and taking part in a cohesive and exciting display by this hastily assembled England team.
Not everything in England's garden was rosy. They wobbled in a couple of early scrums then lost the Gloucester hooker Phil Greening, who suffered concussion after a head-first tackle on the flanker Pablo Camerlinckx left him groggy and staggering like a punchdrunk boxer. Steve Diamond is set to fly out as reserve to become Sale's fifth member of the party and act as cover for Leicester's Richard Cockerill.
Call's initial problems with his drop-outs, added to Argentina's scrummaging prowess, hinted at a long afternoon in store for England.
But the Bath man got his act together to wonderful effect and England's pack rapidly got to grips with their Argentinian counterparts.
The Pumas also lost their hooker in the first hall, and it was a bitter blow to their morale to see the powerful Federico Mendez, Call's club-mate at Bath, leave the field with a dislocated shoulder.
The 24-year-old, who has packed an awful lot of rugby into his seven year international career, will definitely miss Saturday's second Test after dislocating his right shoulder. And he is almost certain to miss the whole of the Pumas' tour to New Zealand, including two Tests against the All Blacks, which begins with a flight from Buneos Aires on Sunday.
As things stand it seems inconceivable that England will fail to complete their first Test double in this country, following a draw and a win in 1981 and a drawn series in 1990 under Will Carling.
With Call whisked away to try his luck with the Lions, though, there will be yet another new cap in the shape of his stand-in be it Wasps' Alex King or Gloucester's Mark Mapletoft.
Either man would be delighted to play with the self-assurance and vision which Catt displayed on Saturday at the Ferrocarril Oeste Stadium.
Admittedly the England forwards, six of whom were making their first start at this level, gave him a wonderful stage on which to strut his stuff.
The back row of Martin Corry, Ben Clarke and Tony Diprose appeared at the outset to be too alike to perform effectively against their Puma counterparts.
But such was the adroitness that each of the England men showed in their handling, allied to the brute force of their forays in loose play, that they all but obliterated Camerlinckx, Rolando Martin and Pablo Bouza.
Argentina showed again that they have tempered their love of the tight exchanges with an appreciation of the wide game which is suited to their gifted runners outside. They scored three tries and England's captain Phil de Glanville admitted that there was still work to do on his team's defence.
But de Glanville also revealed his surprise at the physical state of the opposition at half-time. Full-time training for England's professionals has produced a clear edge in fitness on this tour. As de Glanville and his team-mates, sitting on a 17-13 lead after Diprose's injury time score, looked across at their drained opponents during the interval they sensed the game was theirs for the takine.
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