What Los Pumas said at halftime in their boilover win over England

Michael Cheika has won his latest all-Australian coaching duel with his pal Eddie Jones, leading his Argentina side to a rare triumph at Twickenham over England.

Winger Emiliano Boffelli scored 25 points as the Pumas shocked a misfiring England 30-29 on Sunday to claim their first win at Twickenham since 2006 and end a 10-game losing streak against the team they’ll face in their opening game at the World Cup.

Boffelli scored a superb try and kicked six penalties, while Santiago Carreras also crossed as the Pumas went toe to toe with the favourites on a horrible wet day to give them a huge boost ahead of next September’s Marseille clash.

“We said at halftime that we must stay close in the score, then we got two tries,” Boffelli said.

“Our attitude was important. To score 25 points at Twickenham is great. The whole team did their job.”

The breakthrough triumph ended a proud weekend for Cheika, who had coached a similarly brave and committed p erformance from Lebanon’s rugby league team in the World Cup quarter-final defeat to Australia on Friday.

Since July under Cheika, Argentina have beaten the All Blacks in New Zealand for the first time, won a long overdue home series against Scotland, and led the Rugby Championship for the first time.

England’s much-heralded combination of Marcus Smith, Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi barely featured and the home side committed far too many errors.

“We talked about some issues we had on the field that we didn’t address, we can’t drop confidence because of this,” Farrell said.

“The penalties stopped our momentum. We weren’t at our best and that’s what we are here to do.”

England, who led 16-12 at halftime, scored through Joe Cokanasiga and Jack van Poortvliet but showed precious little attacking invention and kept the visitors in the game with a succession of penalty offences and handling errors.

After a cagey opening quarter England eventually struck off a scrum in the 26th minute as recalled winger Cokanasiga powered his burly frame over from close range to take his international try tally to 12 in 13 appearances

Argentina had not done much with the ball but stayed in touch via four Boffelli penalties and with Farrell landing three, England, wearing their new black strip, edged the largely forgettable half.

The Pumas cut loose seven minutes after the break as they fizzed the ball across the backline to allow Boffelli to slide in at the corner.

Five minutes later they scored a second when Carreras seized on a loose ball to run 50 metres and score. Farrell claimed his misplaced pass had been knocked on but the TMO view ruled otherwise.

England hit back quickly through Van Poortvliet, who showed great pace and determination a minute after coming on to replace Ben Youngs at scrumhalf. Farrell converted to make it a one point game going into the final 20 minutes.

Twickenham sat back for an expected home surge, but though they briefly got their noses in front, England failed to take command as two penalties apiece kept Argentina ahead.

The Pumas controlled the final five minutes superbly to claim the win.