Brive fly-half Andy Goode kicked 22 points
as England beat Argentina 37-15 at Twickenham. All of the
Puma's points came from the boot of Stade Francais'
Juan-Martin Hernandez.
Indeed, it was Hernandez who got the
scoreboard ticking when he landed a trademark early
drop-goal, but Goode replied with two of his own, as well as
a brace of penalties as England took control.
Matt Banahan also went over for a try,
after full-back Delon Armitage had kicked ahead, lifting
Martin Johnson's team into a 10-point interval lead.
Armitage was next over for England, after
good build up play from the impressive Danny Care and Mark
Cueto, and Toulon debutant Tom May also came close to
marking his full debut with a try.
Hernandez continue to punish England with
his place-kicking but Argentina's lack of attacking intent
meant they didn't look like scoring a try until close to the
end - by which time the result was already a formality. And
when they did eventually throw off their shackles they were
undone on the counter-attack and Armitage's speed again as
the London Irish star latched on to a Cueto volley kick
through to score England's third try.
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Johnson welcomed the result and the
performance, and defended Goode against those that had booed
when he opted to kick penalties rather play a more expansive
game.
"When you have shots at goal you have got
to take them. You have got to get ahead and put pressure on
the opposition," he said afterwards.
"Andy controlled the game very well and
kept his composure. It is not nice when people are booing -
they want to see running rugby but he picked and chose his
options pretty well," added the England manager.
But he warned that next weekend's return
match in Argentina would be a different affair. "When we hit
Argentinean turf we have got to improve. It has always been
a difficult place to win. When the Argentinean players came
off they were very disappointed," he said.
Over in Sydney the Barbarians - who
had beaten England 33-26 last weekend - were put to the
sword by Australia as they crashed to a 55-7 defeat.
The Wallabies ran in eight tries as they
opened their international season in convincing fashion.
They were 20-7 up at half-time before racking up the points
in the second period as the Barbarians tired.
"There was some really good stuff," said
Australia coach Robbie Deans. "For a first outing of the
season it was a big positive and it's good to have this game
under our belt before we meet Italy next week," he added.
Former NRL star Sonny Bill Williams
nearly scored with his first touch of the ball, but
generally came off second best to Stirling Mortlock in a
heavyweight confrontation in the centres.
James Horwill, Drew Mitchell and Matt
Giteau all crossed for Australia before the break, with
Biarritz-bound Iain Balshaw grabbing a try back for the
Barbarians after Luke McAlister had created the opening. It
was Balshaw's third try in eight days following his brace
against England - but that was as good as it got for the
tourists.
Stephen Moore, Ben Alexander, Mitchell
(again), David Pocock and 18-year-old James O'Connor added
further scores for Australia after the break to complete the
rout, much to the delight of a 40,000 strong crowd in
Sydney.
Williams may have emerged a loser on the
pitch, but All Black McAlister was clearly impressed by what
he saw. "He's still new to the game and to perform like he
did; his strength and his size is going to get him through,
no matter what," said the Kiwi.
"Just a bit of guidance and a bit of skill
work , and learning the game playing with good players,
he'll be outstanding. I don't know what his plans are for
the next few years, but New Zealand should break the bank to
get him over," added McAlister.
Samoa, meanwhile, have named four
France-based players in their 28-man squad for the
forthcoming Pacific Cup series - Census Johnstone (Stade
Toulousain), Iosefa Tekori (Castres), Henry Tuilagi
(Perpignan) and Gavin Williams (Dax).
