Argentina 12 England 35: George Ford and Tom Roebuck inspire impressive Red Rose win

Ford marked his 100th appearance for England with a 15-point haul in La Plata as he pulled the strings for Steve Borthwick’s makeshift line-up.

Without several players due to British and Irish Lions commitments, Ford and fellow co-captain Jamie George stepped up to help England through a difficult first half, in which they were temporarily reduced to 13 men, before they attacked with aplomb after the interval.

Tom Roebuck grabbed a brace of second-half tries and Freddie Steward also crossed before Cadan Murley wrapped up the scoring late on to earn a comprehensive win, which was all the more impressive given Alex Coles and Seb Atkinson were sent to the sin-bin at the same time during the opening period.

Ford’s drop goal proved the difference between the teams at the break and, in addition to three successful conversions, the Sale fly-half sent over two penalties in quick succession as Argentina threatened a response, to help ease England to victory.

“We just wanted to perform well and win,” said Ford.

“It’s all about the team as always. We understand how difficult it is here in Argentina, so it is a great win for us.

“We were under pressure in the first half, gave away too many penalties and could not get out of our half.

“We had to make sure second half we got out of our half and created some try-scoring opportunities, which we did early in the second.

“We have to back it up next week and we know Argentina will come back at us. Another challenge that we will look forward to.”

England were indebted to co-captain George after Coles was given a yellow card for a head-on-head contact with Facundo Isa.

Yet, after Santiago Carreras missed a simply penalty for the hosts, Ford reprised his role as chief tormentor of Argentina with a fine drop goal to make it 3-0 at the break.

Atkinson had also been shown a yellow card by this point as England were briefly down to 13, but three tries in nine minutes at the start of the second half meant those cards mattered little.

Sale wing Roebuck, inset, crashed over on the right inside two minutes before Ford’s slick pass sent old Leicester team-mate Steward across the line. When Roebuck grabbed his second soon after Argentina looked set for a long night.

However, tries for Pablo Matera and Pedro Rubiolo helped raise the prospect of an unlikely comeback, only for Ford to nail two long-range penalties before Murphy dotted down to seal a clinical away win.

England’s Under-20s, co-captained by Yorkshiremen Tom Burrow and Ben Redshaw, face a do-or-die pool game with Australia at the world championships in Italy on Wednesday, after they lost 32-22 to South Africa on Friday night. England had beaten Scotland in their opening game.