REUTERS/Matthew Childs
Winger Emiliano Boffelli scored 25 points as Argentina stunned England 30-29 on Sunday to claim their first win at Twickenham since 2006 and end a 10-game losing streak against the side they face in their first World Cup match.
Boffelli made a very good start and scored six goals and Santiago Carreras also centred when the Pumas clashed with the favourites on a horrible rainy day to give them a great taste before the Marseille clash next September.
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“The players have an attitude,” Argentina coach Michael Cheika said.
“They want to know what defense is, it’s not a great finish, it’s about getting a smart position in the area to be ready.
“We were going to take trouble even if we didn’t have much of the ball. “
Boffelli, who hit the ball from the tee with genuine elegance throughout the day, said: “We said at half-time we had to stay close to the scoreboard, and then we got two attempts. Our attitude is important. To score 25 points at Twickenham is great, the whole team did their job. “
England’s much-heralded mix of Marcus Smith, Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi figured lightly and the look of the house made too many mistakes and you can’t complain about the result.
“We talked about some of the issues we had on the court that we didn’t solve, we can’t lose confidence because of that,” Farrell said.
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“We’ve had some disjointed portions of the game that are going to improve, the field is avoidable and that wasn’t the case. Sometimes we have relieved the tension. It was a rainy day, a rainy field and like you We saw that neither group moved the ball well.
“The aftermath stopped our momentum. We weren’t at our most productive and that’s what we’re here to do. “
England, who were leading 16-12 at half-time, scored through Joe Cokanasiga and Jack van Poortvliet, but showed a valuable little attacking invention and kept the game with a succession of consequences and handling errors.
After a cautious first quarter, England still secured a scrum in the 26th minute when the remembered winger Cokanasiga propelled his burly body from the nearby diversity to bring his overall foreign mark to 12 in thirteen appearances.
Argentina had done little with the ball but stayed in touch thanks to four consequences from Boffelli and, with Farrell taking three, England, dressed in their new black stripe, passed half-time largely forgettable.
The Pumas escaped seven minutes after halftime when they threw the ball down the baseline to allow Boffelli to sneak into the corner.
Five minutes later, they scored a moment when Carreras grabbed a loose ball to run for 50 yards and score. Farrell claimed his offside pass was hit, but the TMO takes the opposite view.
England had to temporarily counterattack and did so through Van Poortvliet, who showed exceptional speed and determination a minute after replacing Ben Youngs in scrum-half. Farrell changed to turn it into a one-point game in the final 20 minutes.
Twickenham sat down for a long-awaited house push but, shortly, they put their noses in front, England could not take command as two results each maintained Argentina’s advantage and superbly controlled the last five minutes to secure the victory.
England will face Japan next Saturday, also World Cup matches next year, ahead of New Zealand and South Africa, all at Twickenham.
“It’s one of the first games, the forward line has replaced a lot, but you can’t identify what went wrong,” England manager Eddie Jones said.
“Structurally, we had part of the game, but we continued to make basic mistakes and simple mistakes. We lacked a bit of team spirit, but the mistakes we made were in our heads. It wasn’t a problem of equipment or structural. improvement, don’t worry.
Reuter
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