LONDON: England ran in three first-half tries but faded after the interval on the way to a 31-12 win over Argentina at a gloomy Twickenham yesterday.
Lock Joe Launchbury, centre Billy Twelvetrees and winger Chris Ashton crossed the line to put the hosts, bristling with attacking intent, 24-6 ahead at half-time.
England, who fought back to beat Australia 20-13 last Saturday, struggled to maintain their momentum and Nicolas Sanchez kicked two penalties to reduce the deficit for the Pumas.
But England replacement number eight Ben Morgan stormed over with a barrelling 20-metre run late on and the hosts completed a comfortable win to put themselves in good heart for next week’s game against world champions New Zealand.
“It was a forward-orientated battle in the first half,” England hooker and man of the match Dylan Hartley told Sky Sports.
“At the set-piece they came after us but we put them under a load of pressure early on and really happy with the forwards’ performance.
“Courtney Lawes came into his own with his line-out calling. His ability was outstanding. I just wanted to come in and do my role, my job.
“Argentina are a class side. We’ve seen how they’ve come on in the Championship and they weren’t going to roll over and we saw that until the very end.
“We set ourselves a few challenges and now this is ticked off we can go into New Zealand with momentum and confidence and if we can win we can go second in the world.”
After flyhalfs Owen Farrell and Sanchez had exchanged early penalties, the England forwards started to dominate.
REUTERS
