Fab four star in England win

By Mark Stevens
11/7/16

A delighted Eddie Jones described England’s victory over Argentina in San Juan on Saturday as one of the best team efforts he has been associated with during his coaching career.

The Red Rose country, who included Exeter Chiefs quartet Harry Williams, Henry Slade, Jack Maunder and Don Armand in their ranks, fought back from 31-23 down to snatch a last-gasp 38-34 victory.

Argentina replacement fly-half Juan Martin Hernandez thought he had won the first test for the Pumas with his late drop-goal, but replacement winger Denny Solomona, one of 10 new caps, went over for the match-winning try in the final minute.

Fly-half George Ford contributed 23 points with a try and seven goals from eight, while Solomona's late heroics helped make up for a couple of defensive blunders that played a part in Argentina scoring two tries in three minutes to open up an eight-point lead.

"I thought it was an incredible game of rugby," Jones said. "I thought for our guys to win that was a tremendous effort.

"In the end, I think we had 10 new caps out there and to show poise and stick to what we needed to do in the circumstances was an unbelievable effort from the young guys.

"When you are playing a full-strength Argentina team, I think it is one of the best team efforts I have been associated with.

"George Ford was absolutely brilliant. There were guys who made mistakes but they didn't dwell on them.

"Denny made two horrendous errors in defence but got one back. He is going to be doing some defensive work next week. If you see him tackling tackle bags in the streets of Buenos Aires you know why."

Among the new faces, 18-year-old flanker Tom Curry, the youngest player to start for England since 1927, and Mark Wilson particularly caught the eye.

Jones added: "I thought young Curry did well. He made some errors but got on with it. That was the good thing: they just got on with the next thing.

"I thought Wilson did well, Charlie Ewels ran the line-out well against a good line-out team. Alex (Lozowski) did well and Sladey (Henry Slade) showed some nice classy touches which we have seen sporadically but we saw more of it in one game today."

England will fly back to Buenos Aires today to prepare for the second Test in Sante Fe next Saturday, with Jones aiming for a whitewash.

"We came here to win 2-0 and that's what we are going to do," he said. "The big thing for young players is being able to back it up. It is not easy to have one good performance but good players back performances up. It's a great result but I am disappointed with the performance - we gave away too many points.