One more rose-tinted victory against Australia on Saturday will make this, statistically, the most impressive calendar year in English rugby history. Not once in the professional era has the national side gone unbeaten from January to December and only one other England team, back in 1992, has done so since 1980. Given that the class of ’92 played a mere six games, Eddie Jones’s squad would have strong claims to be first among equals should it happen.
To continue to prosper with 13 men on the field for almost a quarter of the game on Saturday suggests that Jones and his coaches have distilled a rare team spirit. Elliot Daly, the first England back to be sent off at Test level, will forever recall this game with a shudder, but several of his team-mates will feel differently. In terms of revealing genuine character and uncovering answers to awkward defensive questions, this was as significant as any of England's 13 consecutive wins so far.
Few teams would have absorbed the loss of Daly and the injured Billy Vunipola, key figures in terms of the way England are trying to play. With plans A and B shredded, however, Jones's on-field lieutenants reorganised shrewdly, slowed the game to a more calculated pace and, by the end, it was Argentina who were hanging on physically despite their previous numerical advantage.
“We want to be the number one team in the world, and to achieve that we have to have the highest level of fitness,” Jones said, suggesting there may be another “5 per cent or 6 per cent” to come.
For George Kruis to last virtually the entire game on his return from ankle surgery was remarkable, and Courtney Lawes, Chris Robshaw and Tom Wood put in a prodigious amount of work. Had Daly not been rightly banished for his mistimed aerial challenge on Leonardo Senatore – French referee Pascal Gaüzère had a fine game – the probability is that England would have won by a wider margin.
It did no harm, either, that Argentina played straight into grateful English palms in the opening half-hour, when a little more tactical and territorial nous would have made life far harder for their hosts. Was the old maestro Juan Martín Hernández fully fit following an early knock? If so, he did not look it, his erratic restarts making it harder for the Pumas – now outside the world's top eight sides and facing a tougher 2019 Rugby World Cup pool when the draw is made in May – to build momentum and pressure.
Wobble
Only either side of half-time did England wobble, a prolonged scrumathon eventually yielding a yellow card for Dan Cole and a try for Facundo Isa. When Santiago Cordero finished off a wonderful sweeping move within two minutes of the restart, the Pumas were back within two points at 16-14 and the crowd's now compulsory interval rendition of Sweet Caroline – there must be some other feelgood anthems lying in the RFU's pile of old vinyl – had been replaced by nervous muttering.
As the 13 of England stood behind their posts, there were echoes of the famous Wellington Test of 2003 when a six-man England pack defied the All Blacks. Jones was coach of the Wallaby side who shipped 50 points at home to New Zealand shortly afterwards – “We got absolutely belted” – and understood from the moment Daly departed that he was about to learn more about his squad than in the previous two autumn Tests combined.
“I was quite excited about it because it was an opportunity to do something we hadn’t done before. We adapted and were absolutely brilliant at executing the plan to win it from there. The credit has to go to the players. They worked it out,” he said.
The late sending-off of Enrique Pierreto for stamping after Marler had illegally held on to his ankle also ensured that the number of cards – two reds and four yellows – broke the record for a Test match.
– Guardian Service
