England v Argentina (Sat)

While Saturday’s

second-half revival

against Australia suggested there is character and class within the current England side, there were enough warning signs in the opening 40 minutes to show fine-tuning is required to consistently challenge the southern hemisphere nations.

In particular, England need to shut down creative opponents at source – as they failed to do in the first period with Will Genia and Quade Cooper at their prompting best.

Saturday’s opponents Argentina do not possess the quality of Australia’s chief tormentors, and the expectation from the Twickenham crowd will be that the job is done with minimal fuss.

Expert Analysis

Jeremy Guscott
Rugby Union analyst, BBC Sport

“Billy Twelvetrees is in the team primarily to create opportunities in attack. The ball has to be in his hands and he touched it about four times (against Australia) and didn’t kick it once; that says a lot about how the team played.”

England coach Stuart Lancaster opted to experiment during the summer tour against the Pumas but has largely

selected a more settled side

for Saturday, in line with his blueprint for the autumn internationals.

Argentina arrive with a new head coach in Daniel Hourcade. His predecessor Santiago Phelan stepped down after failing to win a single match during the southern hemisphere’s Rugby Championship as the Pumas finished bottom of the table.

There will be several changes from the side dismantled by the experimental England tourists during the summer, with Felipe Contepomi now retired and full-back Juan Martin Hernandez and flanker Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe absent through thigh and elbow injuries respectively.

Back-rower Juan Manuel Leguizamon will captain a group which includes recent Premiership imports in Saracens outside back Marcelo Bosch and Leicester flanker Pablo Matera, but they remain a side that England will be expected to comfortably dispatch ahead of the visit of New Zealand.

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

• England have won 13 of the 18 meetings, with Argentina recording four victories. The first meeting, in 1981, was drawn.
  


• England have been victorious in five of six home games against Argentina, with their sole defeat at Twickenham in 2006.
  


• Stuart Lancaster’s side earned the team’s first Test-series victory in Argentina for 32 years during the summer.
  

England

• Defeat by Wales in the Six Nations finale is England’s only loss in 2013.
  


• England have won five games in a row at Twickenham, including victories against New Zealand and Australia, for the first time since before they won the 2003 World Cup.
  


• Six of the current squad – Mike Brown, Lee Dickson, Joe Marler, David Wilson, Joe Launchbury and Tom Wood – started the last meeting against Argentina in Buenos Aires in June.
  

Argentina

• Argentina come into the match on the back of six straight defeats in the Rugby Championship.
  


• The Pumas have not won against a major rugby nation since beating Wales on 10 November 2012.
  


• Argentina’s starting XV boasts 204 more caps than the England side that started against Australia last weekend.
  


• Seven of the Argentina players on duty play their rugby in the Premiership: Leicester’s Marcos Ivan Ayerza and Pablo Matera, Worcester’s Mariano Galarza, Bath’s Horacio Agulla and Juan Pablo Orlandi, Saracens’ Marcelo Bosch and Newcastle Falcons newcomer Gonzalo Tiesi.
  

TEAM LINE-UPS

England


: 15-Mike Brown; 14-Chris Ashton, 13-Joel Tomkins, 12-Billy Twelvetrees, 11-Ben Foden; 10-Owen Farrell, 9-Lee Dickson; 1-Joe Marler, 2-Dylan Hartley, 3-David Wilson, 4-Joe Launchbury, 5-Courtney Lawes, 6-Tom Wood, 7-Chris Robshaw (captain), 8-Billy Vunipola.

Replacements:

16-Ben Youngs, 17-Alex Corbisiero, 18-Dan Cole, 19-Geoff Parling, 20-Ben Morgan, 21-Tom Youngs, 22-Toby Flood, 23-Alex Goode

Argentina


: 15-Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, 14-Horacio Agulla, 13-Marcelo Bosch, 12-Santiago Fernandez, 11-Juan Imhoff, 10-Nicolas Sanchez, 9-Tomas Cubelli; 1-Marcos Ayerza, 2-Eusebio Guinazu, 3-Maximiliano Bustos, 4-Mariano Galarza, 5-Patricio Albacete, 6-Pablo Matera, 7-Julio Farias Cabello, 8-Juan Manuel Leguizamon (captain).

Replacements:

16-Santiago Iglesias, 17-Nahuel Lobo, 18-Juan Pablo Orlandi, 19-Manuel Carizza, 20-Benjamín Macome, 21-Martin Landajo, 22-Gonzalo Tiesi, 23-Santiago Cordero.

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee


: Pascal Gauzere (France)

Touch judges


: Chris Pollock (New Zealand) Craig Joubert (South Africa)

TV


: Gareth Simmonds (Wales)

Article source: http://www.nswrl.com.au/default.aspx?s=article-display&id=76268&title=classic-clashes-1991-game-2

England v Argentina (Sat)