Robinson praying it won't be last tango

England v Argentina: Not since Richard Nixon was in the White House and Olga Korbut was charming the globe has English rugby attracted so much scorn.

It has come to something when even a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, albeit Matt Dawson - who featured in the 2003 World Cup-winning squad - predicts the head coach, Andy Robinson, will be dancing his last tango if England lose to Argentina today. The Twickenham crowd may well take a similar view.

In some ways Robinson simply cannot win. If England reproduce the positive mind-set they showed in the second half against the All Blacks last week, the improvement will largely be credited to the players or his specialist assistants Brian Ashton and John Wells. If they get floored by the Pumas, a side who have beaten France in their last four encounters, guess who will be blamed?

"It's a hypothetical question," muttered Robinson, when asked for a response to Dawson's comment that a record-equalling seventh straight defeat would prompt change at the top. The former Bath flanker can only hope that is still true at 4.30pm.

There is an argument that Robinson's role has already been diluted to the point where it is largely irrelevant whether he stays or goes. Ashton and Wells are both fine coaches and have talked an appreciably better game this week, Rob Andrew is pulling the strings at Twickenham and the mood within the squad is buoyant. It is all but certain that England, who have a host of talented youngsters, will sprout fresh wings at some point in the next two years. The problem is no one knows when.

If Robinson is to remain until the World Cup next year he needs a favour from his players this afternoon. Argentina have never won in London but that simply increases their motivation, already fuelled by a sense of injustice at being deprived a place in the Six Nations or Tri-Nations.

If today's game were part of a Seven Nations championship, with the Pumas based in Spain, who could confidently predict the visitors would finish below England? They boast battle-hardened forwards who rank among the most respected in English and French club rugby. The Fernandez Lobbe brothers from Sale and London Irish's Juan Manuel Leguizamon take some subduing on their own, let alone helped by 12 amigos. "I've been telling them how I'm going to smash them and they have been saying the same to me," said Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, grinning, of his Sale mates.

Robinson believes his team will win if they concentrate on playing to their capabilities. He insists New Zealand were presented with 24 of their record 41 points last weekend and is clinging to the hope that his pack, six of them over 30, can last the pace for the second time in six days.

If they cannot, the longest losing sequence in English rugby history, established in 1971-72 by a side containing such legends as David Duckham and Andy Ripley, will be equalled.

Robinson, however, insists he can take the strain. "If I couldn't cope with it, I'd have walked away months ago."

Today, even so, he finds himself tip-toeing along a very nasty-looking precipice. Guardian Service

ENGLAND: I Balshaw; P Sackey, J Noon, A Allen, B Cohen; C Hodgson, S Perry; P Freshwater, G Chuter, J White; D Grewcock, B Kay; M Corry (capt), L Moody, P Sanderson. Replacements: L Mears, S Turner, T Palmer, M Lund, P Richards, T Flood, J Lewsey

ARGENTINA: J-M Hernandez; J Nunez Piossek, M Avramovic, G Tiesi, P Gomez Cora; F Contepomi, A Pichot (capt); M Ayerza, M Ledesma, O Hasan; I Fernandez-Lobbe, P Albacete; J Fernandez-Lobbe, J Leguizamon, G Longo. Replacements: A Vernet, M Scelzo, E Lozada, M Schusterman, N Fernandez-Miranda, F Todeschini, H Agulla.

Referee: Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand).