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England player ratings vs Argentina | Rugby World Cup 2023
By Liam Heagney
England player ratings live from Stade de France: Forty-eight days after a 14-man England comprehensively defeated Argentina 27-10 in the Pool D opener in Marseille, Steve Borthwick’s squad brought the curtain down on their Rugby World Cup campaign with a 26-23 bronze final win against the Pumas in front of a 77,674 in Paris.
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They were 13 points up in as many minutes, Owen Farrell adding three kicks to Ben Earl’s well-finished eight-minute try, but that express start soon fizzled out and the lead was cut to 16-10 at the break with Tomas Cubelli’s Argentine try.
A breathless start to the second half followed. Santiago Carreras converted his own try after eluding three England tacklers, but he was mugged within seconds of the restart with Theo Dan, one of those missed English tacklers, charging down a clearance kick to score. It was the game’s crucial score.
Three penalty kicks followed, two to Argentina, in an error-ridden final half-hour that eventually ended with England just about doing enough to hang on to their three-point lead and secure a third-place finish at a tournament they weren’t at all fancied to do well at. That is a decent achievement despite their generally blunt attack. Here are the England player ratings:
15. Marcus Smith – 5.5
Thankfully recovered from his quarter-final concussion, he had a mixed bag. Gave the assist pass for the Earl try but on the downside, he took a heavy bang when losing one aerial contest and then gave up a penalty after winning the next duel as he got trapped on the floor with no release. Generally too loose in his play on attack, he also missed too many tackles by getting bumped off.
14. Freddie Steward – 6.5
Was a Stade de France try scorer in March 2022 in his previous start in the wing and he showed some promise here with the ball at times making it to the edge on his side of the field. Competitive in the air, but a couple of tackles were missed.
13. Joe Marchant – 6.5
His last Test for a while as he is staying in Paris after the tournament to join Stade Francais, this was slow going for him but he can hold his head very high after an incredible run of selection in recent months.
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12. Manu Tuilagi – 5.5
Given little room to manoeuvre with the ball in the tight squeeze and only figured marginally in defence with a low tackle count during his 56 minutes.
11. Henry Arundell – 2
Another who will continue on in Paris at a new club (Racing 92), the scorer of five tries versus Chile in his only game until this was sadly starved of possession in his 66 minutes and he exited with the whitest of white England shirts. Took 48 minutes to touch the ball only for his scuffed kick to tempt Will Stuart offside despite Arundell making the catch. His only other note was getting flat-footed around halfway at the start of the move that led to the first-half Argentina try.
10. Owen Farrell – 7.5
Practiced a load of drop goals in the warm-up but never got the opportunity to try and put one over in the game. Viewed as the pantomime villain by the partisan crowd but that didn’t put him off his stride as he slotted four first-half kicks off the tee and two more in the second for a total of 16 points. Ran more than usual with the ball, his only frustration being not getting low enough to stop Cubelli from diving in. Shifted to the centre for the closing 24 minutes to accommodate George Ford.
9. Ben Youngs – 6.5
Au revoir to the England’s men’s record caps holder. He will be fondly remembered, although his 51st-minute exit didn’t get the ovation it should have deserved. Varied his game while on the pitch, but there were a couple of instances when precision eluded him while he was also a missed tackler at the line with Farrell for the first Argentina try.
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1. Ellis Genge – 7
Was understandably keen for this after giving away that infamous scrum penalty at the death in last weekend’s semi-final. His pent-up vigour across his 50-minute appearance was evidenced in a forcible carry at 10-0, and he would have enjoyed the knock-on forcing, chunky heave England gave when Argentina scrummed down a first-half penalty 10 metres out.
2. Theo Dan – 7.5
Finally given a run after three successive games as an unused sub, he illustrated he has a more dynamic style in his 54 minutes than the abrasive Jamie George. Look at how he daintily stepped through the ruck in creating the opening try for Earl and he then charged down the early second-half Carreras kick to regather and score. That was just as well, as he poorly slipped off a tackle on the try-scoring Carreras just moments earlier.
What an England career this man has had ?#ARGvENG | #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/QZogdwWMWT
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 27, 2023
3. Will Stuart – 6.5
His tournament petered out last month, but this was a nice 50-minute reminder to post to head coach Borthwick that he does have his uses. Was leading the early-game tackle count and there were no issues with his set-piece reliability. The offside penalty that gave Argentina points just before he exited was a soft concession, though.
4. Maro Itoje – 8
Turned back the clock last week to his world-class days and while those same heights were understandably not reached here, he was still a major reason why England eventually pocketed their bronze.
5. Ollie Chessum – 7
Would have been deeply wounded getting dropped from last weekend’s starting line-up after such an industrious run of first-choice selection. This 70 minutes of grunt was a good riposte.
6. Tom Curry – 7.5
After a week of feeling the wrath of social media, it was a lovely touch leaving him to run out on his own before the anthems on the occasion of his 50th cap. Lovely too that he was soon winning the opening penalty with a trademark poach at around the same time in this game where he was sent off seven weeks ago against the Pumas. Played 50. Lovely hurling, including a double-digit tackle count.
7. Sam Underhill – 9
First appearance for this mid-tournament call-up for the injured Jack Willis, his carry generated the ruck penalty for Farrell to put England 13 early points up and he continued to be effective on the ball. However, it was his all-action effort on the other side of it that convinced RugbyPass that should have been the bench option in the knockout games rather than the out-of-sorts Billy Vunipola. Credited with a lung-bursting 24 tackles. Wow!
8. Ben Earl – 8.5
His country’s player of the tournament, it was fitting that he raced in for an eighth-minute try and then came up with a hugely important turnover penalty on 53 with England heavily under the pump in their 22. Tasty stats on both sides of the ball.
Finishing his #RWC2023 in style
Sam Underhill is the @Mastercard #POTM #ARGvENG | #Priceless pic.twitter.com/ivT39ISYcQ
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 27, 2023
Replacements:
16. Jamie George – 6.5
Given 26 minutes to try and take the sting out of the contest and bring England home.
17. Bevan Rodd – 7
Double-digit tackle count in his 30-minute appearance. Won the scrum penalty for England to go 26-20 up on 65.
18. Dan Cole – 7
Another with a 30-minute appearance and a meaty tackle count. Brought his trademark physicality.
19. David Ribbans – No rating
The third player involved who will stay on in the Top 14 (Toulon), he was only given 10 minutes at the end.
20. Lewis Ludlam – 6
Was excellent off the bench last month but his 30 minutes here were less energetic than that magical tackle-frenzied night in Marseille.
21. Danny Care – 6
Keep England ticking along in his 29 minutes, but won’t want to be reminded about his brutal drop-goal attempt.
22. George Ford – 6
Given 24 minutes stationed at out-half, it was his offside that gave Argentina their final penalty points.
23. Ollie Lawrence – 5.5
A 66th-minute introduction, his involvements were limited.
As the action diminishes can the commentators be asked to stop apologising for ‘bad on-field language’ pickedup on the refs mike, its a tough physical game, played by humans undder pressure with inevitable outbursts. If you dont like it turn down the sound, that way as a bonus you will avoid all the meaningless pontificating before during and after.
England are excellent at getting themselves in the position to score points and terrible at doing it. Because their whole game is driven by stats and not by rugby intelligence. England are molding themselves into a very consistently decent rugby team and they will very rarely beat the best sides because of it.
It's reminiscent to me of when England were the worst one day cricket team in the world, shortly before we were embarrassed at a world cup and all the staff lost their jobs. The head coach came out with a statement that if we score 270 we will win 70% of matches. So he picked a batting lineup of steady Eddie's who could consistently score but were incapable of scoring fast enough to get us over 300. If your aim is to win 70% of matches then that's a good strategy, if your aim is to world cup, you are engineering your own demise because in the knockout stages you're going to be facing the top sides who can score over 300.
English rugby is crippled by the fear of failure mindset which pervades Englishness. We aren't risk takers… and that is why we will rarely be a top side unless some exceptional individuals come along and why we’d do better with a Kiwi coach. The likes of Owen Farrell and Wigglesworth will get us playing in a way that we will be a solid team, but never a team that can win 3-4 knockout matches in a row against the best sides in the world. We’re trying to beat teams who score in increments of 7, in increments of 3.
Why do England continue to kick possession away?
To compare these ratings to those given the Argies, you would think England wiped them off the park. Barely squeaked the win and the result could have gone the other way with only lack of accuracy by Argentina foiling a win - or at least a draw for an OT.
Pity England had to ruin the evening with a win against Argentina.
Now we have to share one medal with the Northern Hemisphere.
Flip it man.
England just look a mess in the backs. To end with 3 10s on the pitch, and again many playing out of position I just don’t get it. Everyone (maybe except SA) have real pace in the backs, surely needs a rethink?
I can't watch England anymore. I think I might just give it a rest until Farrell retires.
He is the most overrated player on the planet. England will never string together a competent backline as long as he's involved. He squanders all our attacking ball time every time we get in the 22 without fail - how has no one bloody noticed? I've been saying this shit for ten years? Has anyone else noticed yet?! I feel so alone, it's like everyone has been hypnotized and it's all a big joke like maybe you're all paid actors trolling me and I'm in the Truman Show and I just have to keep watching him grubber kick the ball away over and over again and listen to pundits go on about how fucking wonderful he is. I don't know what's real anymore. :(
A 2?
I’ve no idea how much the tickets are for Englands 6n home games, but I imagine that they’re gonna be a pretty hard sell.
Utter shite tonight, kick, kick, fucking kick.
Richard Wigglesworth as an attack coach should be sued under the trades description act.
I lack the vocabulary to enunciate how poor a performance it was.