Key events
PENALTY! Argentina 3 – 12 England (Tomás Albornoz)
29 mins. George is penalised for lazy running. It’s just to the right of the posts so Montoya asks his fly-half to get the side on the board, which he duly does.
The Carreras yellow will remain exactly that, he will return to play in five minutes.
26 mins. England’s scrum is setting a great platform most of the time and this latest is no different. The ball is moved left quickly again to Feyi-Waboso, after which they recycle back the other way for a Slade kick up to the line that F Smith is first but loses under an Albornoz tackle.
YELLOW CARD! Mateo Carreras (Argentina)
24 mins. The TMO has intervened as Mateo Carreras has clattered Freeman’s head as second man into a tackle. He was driving upwards with force, but Freeman was spinning and falling also. It’s enough for a sin-bin, however I doubt it will be upgraded.
TRY! Argentina 0 – 12 England (Ben Earl)
23 mins. Joe Heyes wins a loose ball and England immediately spring forwards, the ball moving left to Feyi-Waboso who again moves through the line and into the 22. Three passes later Earl has the ball and crashes over.
F Smith converts.
21 mins. Genge has a bullocking run, exploding 15 metres forward and skittling three tacklers. The position he sets up allows the ball to be moved left in the Pumas’ half, but Chessum spills it forward out on the wing.
19 mins. A catch and drive from the Pumas moves them forward ten metres on the left side of England’s half. When the ball eventually comes out Mateo Carreras finds a hole to run through and bear down on Marcus Smith. The fullback rattles him and the ball comes loose in the tackle. Good hit from Smith.
15 mins. The scrum is a keen battle at present, with England having the nudge but Argentina forcing their way back with the latest as Joe Heyes hit the deck. The ball is sent to touch in England’s half.
12 mins. Argentina attempt to move the ball wide, reaching as far as Moroni but he’s isolated and/or his clearout runners are bone idle. Either way it means Slade can clamp on the ruck as first man in and win a penalty.
10 mins. The next Pumas attack ends with a knock on from Moroni under pressure. The frustration is compounded when England win a penalty from the resulting scrum that clears their lines.
Speaking of refs, this is the team for the match:
Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia) and Paul Williams (New Zealand),
TMO: Brett Cronan (Australia)
8 mins. The ball emerges from the lineout for Albornoz to use, but again the aggressive English defence starves the home attack of space, forcing them wider and into an aimless grubber. But play is called back as Martin had collapsed the initial maul.
That attracts a warning from the ref after a succession of England penalties in the 22.
6 mins. Due to the aforementioned actions of Chessum, the game restarts with an Argentinian penalty on halfway that they send to touch and get on the attack in the English half. They work some phases against a physical England defence that eventually drifts offside.
TRY! Argentina 0 – 5 England (Tommy Freeman)
4 mins. On the next attack Fin Smith floats a beautiful kick towards Freeman’s wing who soars above Carreras to claim it and score.
Who had four minutes on a fight breaking out? Because immediately after the touchdown there’s some afters that Freeman takes exception to which Chessum runs a full 15 metres towards to get involved with.
Conversion missed.
3 mins. Fin Smith pops a neat inside pass to Feyi-Waboso off his wing who breaks into open pasture. He feeds it right to Marcus Smith who can’t hold onto it, but it was on an advantage from earlier so the visitors will get to go again.
2 mins. Argentina were this close to reclaiming that kick-off, but it wobbled forward off the hands. An early scrum for England is super solid, allowing van Poortvliet to move the ball away and the phases to start around halfway.
Kick Off!
Albornoz chips a short kick off just over the ten metre to start us off.
Argentina are wearing a change kit that is pretty much identical to that worn by their football team in the Maradona “Hand Of God match” vs England in 1986. Which you have to say is a magnificent.
England are out on the pitch awaiting their hosts. The crowd are giving it plenty as a reception to their arrival.
At what point is this match going to produce something resembling a fight? And who will be starting it? Let me know on the email. You can also send other things in, up to you.
Teams
Argentina
Santiago Carreras; Bautista Delguy, Matías Moroni, Justo Piccardo, Mateo Carreras; Tomás Albornoz, Gonzalo García; Mayco Vivas, Julián Montoya, Tomás Rapetti; Guido Petti, Matías Alemanno, Santiago Grondona, Marcos Kremer, Joaquín Oviedo.
Replacements: Ignacio Ruiz, Boris Wenger, Pedro Delgado, Efraín Elías, Pablo Matera, Joaquín Moro, Simón Benítez Cruz, Lucio Cinti.
England
Marcus Smith; Tommy Freeman, Henry Slade, Seb Atkinson, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso; Fin Smith, Jack van Poortvliet; Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Joe Heyes; Alex Coles, George Martin; Ollie Chessum, Guy Pepper, Ben Earl.
Replacements: Luke Cowan-Dickie, Emmanuel Iyogun, George Kloska, Tom Curry, Henry Pollock, Ben Spencer, Benhard Janse van Rensburg, Noah Caluori.
Preamble
Context is everything so they say. Has there ever been a one-off, broadly inconsequential test match with so much context?
You have heard somewhere that England have already lost to Argentina this week, complete with ill-tempered confrontations and topped off with on-field Falklalvinasland banter. The same teams in another sport face each other now with the soundwaves from that row filling the air.
Football is always like though, right? Well, before the high horse of fictional corinthian spirit is smugly climbed upon, the mood music is not exactly mellifluous in the game of rugby union either. Racist abuse from Argentinian fans marred the last meeting here, something England captain Jamie George has referenced, while Henry Pollock has Henry Pollocked his way around Buenos Aires this week.
All of this plays into an interesting fixture. England determined to show they are more the side that ruthlessly dispatched Fiji rather than the one that turned to powder vs the Springboks. Argentina meanwhile will want to shake the pre-season hit-out vibes that have shrouded their opening two rounds. There’s nothing like England plus a barge-load of context to do that.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/jul/18/argentina-v-england-nations-championship-rugby-live
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