England on Saturday showed great determination, organization and experience to overcome a fifth-minute red card for Elliot Daly and grind out an impressive 27-14 victory over Argentina to make it 12 wins in a row under Eddie Jones.
Daly was sent off for tackling Leonardo Senatore in the air, but England still battled to a 16-0 lead via the boot of Owen Farrell and a penalty try.
Argentina got back to 16-14 within a minute of the second half, but some streetwise play enabled Farrell to stretch the lead before a Jonny May try secured the win.
Conversely, it has been a dismal year for Argentina, Rugby World Cup semi-finalists a year ago.
The Pumas have now lost seven of their past eight games and this year have four wins and nine defeats. The result of that is that they have slipped out of the top eight rankings — crucial to seeding for the Rugby World Cup draw in May next year.
England had started confidently and led 3-0, but things took a drastic downward turn when Daly was red-carded for recklessly tackling Senatore in the air, flipping the No. 8 on to his head.
It was England’s first red card since Lewis Moody was sent off against Samoa for fighting 11 years ago and immediately triggered a change in approach with any thoughts of a free-running try-fest safely parked.
Argentina winger Juan Pablo Estelles was lucky to escape any punishment soon afterward when he similarly brought down an airborne May — the key difference being that May landed more safely.
England kept pressing and a great hit by Farrell dislodged the ball from Juan Martin Hernandez, but with the line beckoning, Matias Orlando batted down the final pass and French referee Pascal Gauzere awarded a penalty try and sent the winger to the sin bin.
There was no scrum in the first 35 minutes, but then there was virtually nonstop scrummaging 5m from the hosts’ try line. England defended desperately, but illegally and eventually had prop Dan Cole sin-binned to drop them to 13.
Argentina refused to take the guaranteed three points and their faith in their favorite weapon paid off when they finally shoved England back and sent Facundo Isa over to make it 16-7 at the break.
Within a minute of the restart it was 16-14 after a brilliant try by Santiago Cordero, as the Pumas’ backs cashed in on their brief two-man advantage with a scintillating 75m attack and started dreaming of a second win at Twickenham 10 years after the first.
England needed to take the space out of the game and did so superbly with driving mauls and pick-and-go tactics that earned another six points from Farrell to edge them eight points clear.
With that cushion, England did cut loose and great work by George Ford and Jonathan Joseph sent May over in the left corner to settle the match.
However, the talking points kept coming, as Argentina replacement Enrique Pieretto was red-carded for stamping on the head of prop Joe Marler, who was sin-binned for holding in the same exchange.
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