Rusty England overcome spirited Pumas

Semesa Rokoduguni marked his first Test in a year with a try as England beat Argentina 21-8 in a scrappy first November international at Twickenham.

The Six Nations champions were looking to make a statement a week before facing Australia, but were not at their best against the Pumas in an attritional contest on Saturday.

Nathan Hughes scored the only try of the first half and Rokoduguni came off the bench to add a second following the interval after replacing Mike Brown, who was injured in a sickening fall after taking a high ball in the first half.

Nicolas Sanchez scored a late consolation try for Argentina, who missed four penalties in a spirited display and still have just the one win to their name in a miserable year in which they lost both Tests against England on home soil in June.

George Ford scored 11 points with the boot and laid on Hughes’ try, while Mako Vunipola was influential as England, missing the rested Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje, got the job done after but will have to raise their game against the Wallabies.

Ford struck a post with a penalty before putting England in front from the tee seven minutes in, but Emiliano Boffelli split the posts to bring Daniel Hourcade’s side level after the impressive Sam Underhill was penalised for not rolling away following a big hit.

Another Ford penalty restored England’s advantage before Brown’s participation came to a horrific end when he landed on his head midway through the first half after being caught by Joaquin Tuculet taking a high ball, Rokoduguni coming on to replace him and Anthony Watson moving to full-back.

Tuculet was shown a yellow card and the opening try came soon after, Ford showing his class by missing out three men with a magnificent pass which Hughes plucked at the second attempt and powered his way over in the right corner.

Ford struck the woodwork for a second time with his conversion attempt, but the number 10 added a third penalty to put England 14-3 up at the break following two bad misses from Juan Martin Hernandez.

Rugby is a game of respect, well played @lospumas ?#ThisIsRugby pic.twitter.com/sMZsoey65L

— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) November 11, 2017

England were guilty of too many errors in the second half as the Pumas stood firm, Boffelli missing a chance to reduce the deficit to only eight points with a penalty which was a long way wide of the target.

Hernandez kicked for the corner moments later as the 2015 World Cup semi-finals scented an opportunity to set up a tense finale, but were denied when England won a scrum and there was more frustration for the Pumas when replacement Sanchez failed to slot over a penalty.

Eddie Jones has spoken of the importance of England’s “finishers” making an impact from the bench and Alex Lozowski did just that, darting through a gap to put Argentina on the front foot before Rokoduguni finished on the right after Henry Slade picked him out with a pass which looked slightly forward but was given after a check from the TMO.

Sanchez finally breached a solid England defence to go over for a late try after Sam Simmonds came on for his debut in a rusty performance from the home side.