George Ford marks 100th Test cap by leading England to victory against Argentina

Alex Coles and debutant Seb Atkinson were shown yellow cards by referee Angus Gardner to temporary reduce Steve Borthwick’s team to 13 men in La Plata, but after a superb regard defensive action, England were much improved after the break.

Tom Roebuck grabbed a first try within two minutes of the restart and added another after Freddie Steward crossed over. Caden Murley concluded the scoring with five minutes left on a night where co-captain Ford showed his class on his 100th appearance for England.

All eyes were on Ford initially, but it was scrum-half Ben Spencer who did most of the kicking early on with a number of box kicks as Argentina dominated territory.

Infringements were a regular occurrence from England and Coles was first to be sent to the sin-bin for a head-on-head contact with Facundo Isa.

It was followed by rock-solid English defence led by co-captain Jamie George and after Santiago Carreras missed a simple penalty for Argentina, Ford landed a drop goal to conjure memories of his virtuoso display in the 2023 World Cup group stage.

Atkinson followed Coles in being shown a yellow following a succession of team offsides, which reduced England to 13 men.

However, George again starred to keep Argentina at bay and while Ford missed another drop goal effort, it remained 3-0 at half-time.

England started the second period with better intent and needed only 65 seconds to score the first try of the match.

A fine carry by Ben Curry was followed by quick ball from Ford and Steward, who found Sale wing Roebuck and he crashed over on the right.

Ford failed to add the extras, but quickly made amends with a superb pass to release his former Leicester team-mate Steward for England’s second try.

This time Ford kicked the conversion and the purple patch continued as Roebuck grabbed another in the 49th minute.

After being stopped just short of the try-line after a free-flowing move, Roebuck made no mistake second time around to help England move 22-0 ahead.

Pablo Matera helped Argentina to produce an instant response and when Pedro Rubiolo finished off a superb team attack minutes later, the momentum had suddenly shifted.

Borthwick turned to his bench as Guy Pepper was introduced for his Test debut, but fittingly it was Ford who took charge on his 100th international outing with two inch-perfect penalties – the second from near the halfway line.

Harlequins wing Murley entered the fray with eight minutes later and wrapped up the scoring with an excellent finish before Ford kicked his third conversion to help England begin their summer tour in style.