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Penalty! 35 min: England 13-9 Argentina (Farrell)
A late strike from Argentina captain Montoya is penalized with England in the opposition half and Farrell takes the penalty confidently, as usual.
Penalty! 32 min: England 10-9 Argentina (Boffeli)
Another good strike from the Argentinian winger’s shirt, from around 30 yards, and Cheika’s men are a point behind despite having around 30% possession. The Australian coach is pictured smiling with one of his team in the stands. Could this be his first win against Jones in his coaching career?
Updated at 14.53 GMT
29 min: Steward does well to pounce on a garryowen after a good chase in Argentina’s half, allowing Tuilagi to absolutely crush a hapless Pumas No 6 Gonzalez, who didn’t see it coming. Ouch.
Updated at 14.50 GMT
Try it! 24 min: England 10-6 Argentina (Cokanasiga)
England go ahead at the last attacking scrum. Youngs passes inside his left hand to the running Cokanasiga, right shoulder, who is simply too powerful to stay out of range. Tuilagi also lurks very close by. Cokanasiga is half tackled but spins over the try line and taps. Farrell hits the conversion with confidence and it’s seven points for England.
Updated at 14.46 GMT
22 min: In the next scrum, England win the penalty and are sent off for a lineout. Sinckler goes into touch from England’s resulting possession in the Argentina 22. The ball goes to the left wing as England are attacking. Smith tries to pounce with a kick into the goal area and Argentina concede a five-metre scrum.
19 min: Argentina looked to have the best of England in that scrum. David Flatman on Amazon Prime commentary reckons Thomas Gallo has the best of Sinckler after he collapses but the scrum is reset.
Updated at 14.38 GMT
17 min: A big hit from Lavanini on Sinckler. Lavanani, you may recall, was sent off playing against England in the last World Cup.
Now Cokanasiga has a dart down the left wing for England, and then Steward has a strike down the right. Initially the referee sees a knock-on from England, but on video review it is clearly an Argentinian hand hitting the ball… England have a scrum in a promising position.
Penalty! 15 min: England 3-6 Argentina (Boffelli)
Horrific moment for Coles as he spills the restart and touches it. Argentina win a penalty after the resulting mix-up and Boffelli puts the Pumas back in front…
Penalty! 12 min: England 3-3 Argentina (Farrell)
Argentina are penalized for holding the ball down for England with Youngs trying to get things moving, and Farrell saves the penalty between the posts. All square.
Penalty! 9 min: England 0-3 Argentina (Boffelli)
Argentina turns it in the middle and goes ahead. Smith goes down trying to clear the loose ball, and one of the Argentine chasers pounces on it. It’s an attractive attacking platform for Cheika’s men as a result, and they get a penalty advantage for Coles’ off-ball. Carreras scores the penalty and the Pumas go ahead.
Updated at 14:30 GMT
6 min: England win a lineout in the Argentina 22. Itoje claims it, and the hosts then spend a few phases near the tryline. Some good hands from Sinckler, among others. Nowell also has a dart. But there is no change regarding the Argentine defense. Smith shoots high on the left, but Argentina take a mark with ease and the danger clears.
England’s Freddie Steward jumps over Argentina’s Emiliano Boffelli to catch the ball. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP
Updated at 14.28 GMT
4 min: There are a lot of kicks, but we expected that. Smith tackles a pass from Sinckler in midfield, but eventually pulls himself together and sends a diagonal kick into the Argentina 22. England look sharp with ball in hand, you can tell, but, as has been said, they are also putting the ball a lot.
1 min: Coles and Billy Vunipola start with England’s first kicks after Argentina kick off. Ben Youngs then throws in a box, Argentina No.10 Carreras puts in a garryowen and Freddie Steward takes a mark comfortably.
Start of the first half!
here we come
A burst of hymns, now. First Argentina, then a rendition of God Save the King.
England and Argentina players line up before the match. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters
Updated at 14.24 GMT
Not sure about knocking on the door, but it’s definitely pounding with rain at Twickenham.
The players are waiting in the tunnel.
“I don’t think it’s very pretty today,” says Amazon Prime expert Dylan Hartley. “It’s about banging on the door … it could be boring for us. It’s about finding something that works and sticking with it.”
“There could be a lot of kicking,” admits fellow pundit Topsy Ojo.
Robert Kitson
There are some big rugby games this month, but Saturday’s World Cup final between the Black Ferns and England is right now. Interest has soared over the past 24 hours that a world record attendance is now being secured at Eden Park for a sell-out contest with the potential to launch women’s rugby into another commercial stratosphere.
Eddie Jones has a chat: “We just want to improve every game… there are a few specific areas we want to improve, including team cohesion… I’ve been really pleased with the attitude over the last couple of weeks.
“You have to have an adaptable leadership team … we’ve had good practice over the last few weeks.
“Manu gives us a great forward, Owen is a good passer and kicker, and that should free up Marcus to play his expansive brand of rugby.”
About Argentina: “They are playing with a lot of passion, like him [Cheika] it’s very good to generate.”
Michael Cheika speaks on Amazon Prime: “I’m feeling great, the experience with Lebanon at the Rugby League World Cup was probably one of my best sporting experiences… it gave me so much energy, I’ve been flying in between here and there during the week… I really enjoyed it.”
When asked what is the best advice Jones has given him, Cheika rejects the idea of the England manager being his senior: “It’s not really that kind of relationship. Even when we were playing, it was more of a connection…a similar kind of background off the field…there’s a bit of an age difference and I’m happy to say I’m younger. There’s also a lot of respect and friendship from back in the day.”
What are Argentina’s goals for the next year? “I think it’s about building up the right way to the World Cup … we just have to learn more about winning, believe we can do it … you’re playing against the best teams in the world. Don’t worry: grow, learn and get to where we think we can go out and win games.”
Updated at 2.15pm GMT
A couple of bits of pre-match reading:
Team news
After a summer series win in Australia, England’s backline looks pretty exciting, with Manu Tuilagi back at No 13 and Marcus Smith at No 10. Ben Youngs returns to scrum-half. Notably, ball-ruining opposition Maro Itoje wears No.6, with Jonny Hill and Alex Coles occupying the second row. Billy Vunipola (#8) and Tom Curry (#7) are Itoje’s teammates in the back row.
England: Freddie Steward, Jack Nowell, Manu Tuilagi, Owen Farrell (captain), Joe Cokanasiga, Marcus Smith, Ben Youngs; Billy Vunipola, Tom Curry, Maro Itoje, Jonny Hill, Alex Coles, Kyle Sinckler, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ellis Genge. Subs: Jack Singleton, Mako Vunipola, Joe Heyes, David Ribbans, Sam Simmonds, Jack Willis, Jack van Poortlviet, Henry Slade.
Argentina is led by Leicester’s unstoppable hooker, Julian Montoya. Also look out for Gloucester’s Santiago Carreras at number 10 and Newcastle winger Mateo Carreras. They will certainly bring good play too, something Eddie Jones has just said has improved under his manager Michael Cheika.
Argentina: Juan Cruz Mallia, Matthew Carreras, Mathias Moroni, Jeronimo De la Fountain, Emiliano Boffelli, Santiago Carreras, Gonzalo Bertranou; Pablo Matera, Marcos Kremer, Juan Martín González, Thomas Lavanini, Matthias German, Francisco Gómez Kodela, Julian Montoya (captain), Thomas Gallo. Substitutions: Ignatius Ruiz, Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Eduardo Beautiful, Lucas Paulos, Facundo Isa, Elisha Morales, Thomas Albornoz, Matthias Orlando.
Updated at 14.19 GMT
Ireland beat South Africa in Dublin last night:
And France secured a brilliant win against Australia thanks to a late Damien Penaud try:
Amazon Prime’s Mark Durden-Smith has a chat with England forwards coach Richard Cockerill, who says the following today: “The lads have come in and will take their chance today. We’re looking forward to getting started.
On Alex Coles, the Northampton second row who will make his debut: “We’re really looking forward to seeing how he goes.
“We do the basics really well … especially against this team … and then we can build on that for the next three games.”
Eddie Jones has thanked England cricketer Jonny Bairstow for a “fantastic” pep talk for the players on the field:
preamble
England will face Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa before the end of November in this Autumn Nations Series. Eddie Jones calls it a mini-World Cup, and while it’s retained that throwaway sound, it’s actually a series of one-off revenue-raising “friendlies” that will ultimately have little bearing on the next year’s tournament.
That said, Argentina and next weekend’s opposition Japan are both in Group D with England in France, with Jones’ side kicking off their World Cup campaign against Los Pumas in Marseille on September 9 . Jones’ former Randwick team-mate and long-time coaching adversary Michael Cheika has quickly brought him back to leading…