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England narrowly got past Argentina on Friday in Paris, France. The outcome of the match saw England finishing their Rugby World Cup 2023 campaign on a high. England won Bronze Medal with Argentina finishing fourth.
The match was a game of two halves. England started well to go 13-0 up but Argentina was playing much better than the English in the second-half and will feel unlucky to have lost the match.
The early going was all England. Captain Owen Farrell landed a 3rd minute penalty. It was followed by the game’s first try. N8 Ben Earl ran into an unprotected area to go over for a try. Farrell landed the conversion from wide.
Farrell landed a second penalty in the opening quarter to put England 13 points up. Emiliano Boffelli got one back for Los Pumas early on in the second quarter. Los Pumas were cross with their start and went in search of a try in response. Phases of attack culminated in Tomás Cubelli crossing from a meter out.
Boffelli’s second penalty made it a 16-10 scoreline after two minutes of the second-half. Los Pumas then took the lead. With the play going right, Santiago Carreras cut inside to beat three defenders and make a fool out of Marcus Smith playing out of position at fullback.
Argentina had the lead but not for long. In a cruel blow, Santiago Carreras went from hero to zero. He had a kick charged down by hooker Theo Dan. Farrell converted for a 23-20 lead after 45 minutes.
Farrell landed one further penalty while Argentina landed two. Boffelli and Farrell traded penalties before Nicolás Sánchez slotted one for Argentina with twelve minutes remaining. It set-up a thrilling ending to the Bronze Final.
Los Pumas looked in control. Multiple penalties saw them within range for a lineout to maul move. Instead, they went for a penalty with Sánchez missing. Had it gone over then the scores would have been level.
Argentina nonetheless remained on the attack. Half-breaks followed but loose ball and knock-on’s led to scrums. Referee Nic Berry was under pressure with collapses. Instead of penalizing for collapsing, the option taken was play-on. England then held-on to win with slow phases to use up time in the final minute.
SCORING
ENGLAND (26)
Try – B Earl (8′); T Dan (44′)
Con – O Farrell 2 (9′, 45′)
Pen – O Farrell 4 (3′, 13′, 30′, 65′)
ARGENTINA (23)
Try – T Cubelli (36′); S Carreras (42′)
Con – E Boffelli 2 (37′, 43′)
Pen – E Boffelli 2 (24′, 50′), N Sanchez (68′)
TEAMS
ENGLAND
1 Ellis Genge, 2 Theo Dan, 3 Will Stuart, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Ollie Chessum, 6 Tom Curry, 7 Sam Underhill
8 Ben Earl, 9 Ben Youngs, 10 Owen Farrell (capt.), 11 Henry Arundell, 12 Manu Tuilagi, 13 Joe Marchant, 14 Freddie Steward, 15 Marcus Smith
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Bevan Rodd, 18 Dan Cole, 19 David Ribbans, 20 Lewis Ludlam, 21 Danny Care, 22 George Ford, 23 Ollie Lawrence
ARGENTINA
1 Thomas Gallo, 2 Julián Montoya, 3 Francisco Gómez Kodela, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 6 Juan Martín González, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Facundo Isa, 9 Tomás Cubelli, 10 Santiago Carreras, 11 Mateo Carreras, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 13 Lucio Cinti, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 15 Juan Cruz Mallía
Replacements: 16 Agustín Creevy, 17 Joel Sclavi, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Matías Alemanno, 20 Rodrigo Bruni, 21 Lautaro Bazán Vélez, 22 Nicolás Sánchez, 23 Matías Moroni
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Nic Berry (AU)
Assistant Referees: Nika Amashukeli (GE) and Andrew Brace (IE)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (UK)
