Martin Johnson can finally rejoice as Argentina lack any bite in their backs

Chris Jones
13 Nov 2009

England have spent so much time talking up Argentina's renowned pack that another loss to dismay the Twickenham crowd is supposed to be a distinct possibility tomorrow.

Argentina may have a world-class scrum, effective line-out and a strength- sapping driving game but the truth is their backs would struggle to worry a Guinness Premiership outfit.

Although England are down to eighth in the world rankings - two places below Argentina - after being beaten 18-9 by Australia, Martin Johnson's side will beat the Pumas and end their try-scoring drought for four obvious reasons.

Full-back Ignacio Corleto, centre Felipe Contepomi, fly-half Juan Martin Hernandez and scrum-half Augustin Pichot are either retired or injured.

Those players helped make Argentina the third-best team at the 2007 World Cup and finally convinced South Africa, New Zealand and Australia to invite the South American country to join the Tri-Nations from 2012.

Two years on from the World Cup, they arrive at Twickenham with the uncapped pair of centre Martin Rodriguez and wing Mauro Comuzzi alongside converted centre Santiago Fernandez, who is trying to fill the enormous void left by Stade Francais star Hernandez. All three play for amateur clubs in their homeland.

Argentina need these players to become the new stars but for now they are untried and vulnerable and their backline problems are exasperated by the injuries to wings Gonzalo Camacho, of Harlequins, and Leicester's Lucas Amorosino.

If England really are on the right track then Johnson's men will erase the memory of their turgid forward display last week and produce the kind of ball that will allow Jonny Wilkinson to showcase the pace and precision he believes exists in the back division. Johnson is only too aware that Argentina turned up at Twickenham in 2006 and walked away with a 25-18 win that did for Andy Robinson.

With Johnson (left) and his coaching staff rightly taking flak for the performance against Australia, they have spent the week hammering home the lessons learned with producing quick ball top of the agenda.

The Pumas will be determined to make life uncomfortable for the scrum, physically draining for the fringe defence and frustrating for Wilkinson's backs as they get arms and legs over the ball carrier at the break down.

To nullify Argentina's ball killers, England must copy the Australians by running hard and straight, clearing out the tackler with precision to allow the scrum-half to fire the ball into the No10's hands.

This momentum left England on the back foot for much of the second half in stark contrast to the opening 40 minutes when their forwards generated plenty of possession.

England flattered to deceive which has resulted in four changes in the side; three tactical and one enforced. Duncan Bell had to take over from the injured David Wilson at prop, however the choice of No8 James Haskell ahead of Jordan Crane, hooker Dylan Hartley for Steve Thompson and most crucially Paul Hodgson for Danny Care at scrum-half, is supposed to bring much-needed dynamism into the tactics.

It has been another week of injury problems, with England's stock of tight-head props now almost exhausted, resulting in the arrival among the replacements of Paul Doran-Jones, who has played just 266 minutes of Premiership rugby.

However, unlike Rodriguez, Comuzzi and Fernandez, he is a contracted professional at Gloucester but his inclusion is still a calculated gamble.

Bell starts at tight-head desperate to prove that at 35 he can nullify the famous Pumas scrum and this is the one area where the opposition do have a distinct advantage.

If England get it right up front, expect a more accomplished performance at inside-centre from Shane Geraghty, who has been asked to choose more carefully his attempts to cut the opposition apart and accept that the chip kick was overused against Australia.

I expect England to emerge with a morale-boosting win to take into next weekend's clash with New Zealand when they will have every reason to fear their opponents.