Ben Youngs came off the bench to score the only try as England emerged as 13-9 winners of a brutal Rugby World Cup Pool B encounter with Argentina yesterday that will be surely remembered for an extraordinary number of missed goal-kicks.
A converted try by replacement scrumhalf Ben Youngs 15 minutes from time finally edged England ahead after Argentina had looked more than capable of matching their 2007 opening match victory over France.
However, they missed six of their nine penalty attempts, four of the misses coming in the first half they dominated to lead 6-3 at the break in an error-strewn, ill-disciplined game.
England were almost as bad as Jonny Wilkinson, the man whose golden boot won them the Cup eight years ago, had the worst night of his career as he sent five of his seven penalties wide.
The 2007 runners-up, seeking an unprecedented third successive final, eventually found enough control, thanks in no small part to the second-half introduction of Youngs, making his first appearance in four months following knee surgery.
“Youngsy came on and turned the game and we got a little bit of tempo in there and got some fast ball and scored the try and got more control on the game,” England captain Mike Tindall said.
The first half was a brutal encounter, littered with penalties and injuries, but Argentina failed to take advantage of England’s awful indiscipline.
England manager Martin Johnson had vowed this week that his team had cleaned up their act, but they were on the wrong side of referee Bryce Lawrence from the start.
Repeatedly offside and offending at the ruck, they handed Argentina chance after chance, but fullback Martin Rodriguez missed three of his four attempts and flyhalf Felipe Contepomi landed one from two before his night was cut short by a 25th-minute injury.
After awarding eight penalties against England in 35 minutes, Lawrence ran out of patience and sin-binned prop Dan Cole, England reaching halftime fortunate to be only 6-3 down.
Argentina, who also lost center Gonzalo Tiesi to a first-half injury, were immediately back on top after the restart and after they were held up on the line by some desperate English defense, Rodriguez edged them 9-3 ahead with another penalty.
Lawrence was getting arm ache though as he continued to penalize both sides, usually at the breakdown.
However, Wilkinson, perhaps unnerved by the deafening boos and jeers reverberating around the indoor stadium as he lined up his kicks, amazingly missed three in a row, while Rodriguez was also off-beam with his next long-range effort.
England though were at last beginning to play on the front foot as Youngs, on for Richard Wigglesworth five minutes into the second half, injected some pace and sharpness.
It was Youngs who turned the game when he scampered through for the only try, which Wilkinson converted to put England ahead for the first time.
The flyhalf, preferred to Toby Flood partly because of his usually supreme goal-kicking, missed yet another, but finally nailing one five minutes from time to make it 13-9 as England finished on top.
“The first 40 minutes it was quite hard to play rugby when you don’t touch it or see it [the ball],” Tindall said. “You have to give credit to Argentina because when they had the ball they controlled it very well. We know how good their pack was. They squeezed and squeezed and eked out penalties, but luckily today not one of the kickers could kick really.”
“They were quite effective when they could be and unfortunately we lost, but I think it was a good performance and hopefully we can build from this,” Contepomi said.
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