Plenty of reasons for England and Argentina to get up for play-off match
And Run Owen In Sheridan Coach Podium Picture: Steve Captain's England's Paris Borthwick Farrell Inpho/dan Finish? At Head
What about a race row? What about trying to pick yourself off the floor after an agonising one-point semi-final defeat? Or, hey, yes, the seedings for the next World Cup? That’ll gee the boys up. Finding motivation for a bronze place play-off? It’s a brain-shrivelling conundrum to solve.
No matter how much a head coach might pore over his meticulous plans – and when it comes to poring and plans there is no-one quite like Steve Borthwick for attention to detail, a former second-row who used to sneak down to the team room to study lineout analysis videos in the early hours at very much the sort of time when the likes of a Jason Leonard or the late Willie Duggan used to be sneaking into the hotel – there is no best preparation routine that can guarantee a performance in the match that no-one wants, the bronze play-off that is the bane of every sportsman’s life. Even that change of nomenclature, trying to lend more gravitas and meaning to the event as if the players were Olympians striving to make the podium, is no more than cosmetic tinkering. Third-fourth place consolation is exactly what it is, the has-been fixture as far as the glory and real prizes are concerned.
To be fair to the two teams they have both made all the right noises as to their respective approaches. Borthwick has declared it as a chance to look to the future allied to an opportunity to give a fitting send-off to one of the game’s real good guys, scrum-half, Ben Youngs, for whom this will be his 127th and last test match in what has been a quite splendid career, making his debut from the bench against Scotland in 2010 in a team captained by Borthwick himself.
There are plenty of reasons for England to get their act together on Friday night at the Stade de France even if the backdrop will be a pale imitation of the games hosted there so far. ‘Tough,’ you might say and you would be right to. The main event occurs 24 hours later. That said, England’s form coming into the tournament, as well as during it at various junctures, had been so wretched, so uninspiring and deflating, that any opportunity to restore some feel-good vibes to English rugby is not to be sniffed at, the status of this particular game notwithstanding.
England have had a World Cup that does the full transit journey from worthy and commendable down to ropey and worrying and back again. It is ending as it started, with a game against the Pumas who themselves have had a rather weird, baffling few weeks. How appropriate that two such misfits should be signing off together. England warmed the chilled cockles of their supporters’ hearts on that opening weekend with a George Ford drop-goal fest against the self-same opposition they face on Friday evening albeit with, fingers crossed, a full 15-man complement rather than the 14 they had to battle on with after Tom Curry was red-carded in the third minute.
Curry has had quite the tournament himself. Sent off, banned, back in the fray and now at the centre of the race storm that blew up when he accused Springbok hooker, Bongi Mbonambi, of calling him ‘a white c***’ during last Saturday’s semi-final. Even though World Rugby took until Thursday to attempt to draw a line under it by saying there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to proceed to a full disciplinary investigation, there was never any danger that Curry would look to absent himself from the match even though he has been subjected to the hell-fire that is social media.
“He looked straight back at me, point blank and said ‘I’m desperate to play’", revealed Borthwick.
Youngs is the sympathy selection, Curry the hard-nosed one while there is also a nod to the future with the back-three combination where Marcus Smith gets his second start at full-back, Freddie Steward moving to the wing where he is paired with the fleet-footed Henry Arundell who notched five tries against Chile.
Owen Farrell is the point man at fly-half, another bulwark against end-of-term head-dropping. There are a couple of other selections to note on the bench where you might expect to be getting your last sightings in an England shirt of prop, Dan Cole, and perhaps scrum-half, Danny Care, too. The same is true, at last for a while, of centre Joe Marchant who has signed a three year deal with Stade Francais, so rendering him ineligible for England duty. The RFU will have to amend their ban on picking from outside England or their ranks will be severely depleted.
Argentina, who have made three changes, will have to summon the spirit of 2007 – when the Pumas beat hosts, France, to finish third – if they are to round off a disjointed campaign with a flourish. There is a certain amount of pride at stake for them too but England would appear to be gathering themselves to finish on an unexpected high.