England 16 Argentina 9:SOME PEOPLE will argue this was progress from an English point of view. Presumably they also believe the earth is flat and that Elvis is still alive and well. Martin Johnson's face betrayed a very different reality on Saturday evening and the dark shadow of New Zealand now looms. Winning ugly is perfectly acceptable but when it involves such creative bankruptcy it offers little lasting comfort.
Even Johnson had to acknowledge that England won in spite of themselves. Lewis Moody was outstanding as a destructive human missile, James Haskell made a decent fist of his switch to number eight and the home pack refused to crumble into a thousand pieces, helped by one or two contentious refereeing calls by the otherwise authoritative Nigel Owens and the bizarre decision to remove the dangerous Martin Scelzo at a critical stage. Otherwise it was such a wasteland of ambition that those who booed the teams off at half-time were perfectly justified.
With the odd exception, England simply don’t appear to be enjoying the predictable tactics they are being instructed to employ.
Neither, clearly, do their fans, which places further pressure on the management, regardless of this outcome. If winning were all that matters, why the long post-match faces? Until Matt Banahan’s 70th-minute try, the hosts seemed unlikely to register either a victory or a try for the second weekend running. Even when a simple midfield bust by Haskell, a rare ball-carrying contribution from Steve Borthwick and safe hands from Moody finally gave Banahan the space to surge over for his third Test try in four Tests, there was concern in the coaching box as the big Bath winger ambled around to the posts with the ball in one hand.
Yet the fact remains that England are no closer to moulding a team of potential world-beaters than they were a year ago. The all-action Moody is scarcely a new discovery, the experiment of switching Ugo Monye to full-back has been a glaring failure and even Wilkinson is struggling.
Had Argentina possessed a more experienced fly-half, or their debutant centre Martin Rodriguez not emulated Wilkinson in missing three penalties, it might have been even worse. Johnson should have blooded Ben Foden at number 15 against the Wallabies and must now weigh up whether to hand the Northampton utility back his first start against the All Blacks or retain Mark Cueto in the full-back role. If Simon Shaw is anywhere near fit, he has to return in the second-row where Courtney Lawes and Nick Kennedy must be the most frustrated of onlookers. If England simply want to negate New Zealand, there is also a case for Joe Worsley on the blindside flank, given that Tom Croft’s talents are wasted in a team of such limited ambition.
Overwhelmingly, though, there is a sense of repression as opposed to freedom of expression. England only pulled through following collective recognition at the interval that another 40 minutes of utter dross was unthinkable. Without Wilkinson’s angled drop-goal and a fine 50-metre penalty in a swirling wind, they would have struggled even more and they were lucky on at least two occasions when Owens harshly penalised Argentina as they rumbled towards the English line.
Wilkinson, despite leaving the field early following a blow to the chin, will be back in the chair opposite Dan Carter and is promising slightly more ambition next week. “I think we need to go out there and show our hand a bit more,” he confessed. It is starting to feel like a perverse game of Cluedo. Who murdered the beautiful game on Saturday at the spiritual home of the nation’s Colonel Mustards? Fifteen Professor Plums, all carrying identical lengths of blunt lead piping.
ENGLAND: Monye; Cueto, Hipkiss, Geraghty, Banahan; Wilkinson (Goode 75), Hodgson (Care 75); Payne (Doran-Jones 63), Hartley (Thompson 69), Bell , Borthwick, Deacon, Croft, Worsley, London 63), Moody, Haskell.
ARGENTINA: Agulla; Borges, Tiesi, Rodriguez, Comuzzi; Fernandez, Lalanne (Figuerola 75); Roncero, Ledesma, Scelzo (Ayerza 66), Lozada (Carizza 55), Albacete, Leonardi, Abadie (Campos 35), Fernandez Lobbe.
Referee: N Owens (Wales).
