ARGENTINA beat England for the first time in history on home soil. Felipe Contepomi won his 50th cap. Referee Kelvin Deaker supervised his first ever match at Twickenham. And England won more line-outs, won more turnovers, completed more passes and missed less tackles than Argentina, yet still managed to play so badly they were booed off the pitch having succeeded in achieving their worst run in international rugby history - ever.

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The afternoon began with two minutes silence for Armistice Day; the Argentine national anthem was tediously long, then following the English anthem, the new tradition of ‘Land of Hope & Glory’ reverberated around the magnificent new-look stadium that was once Fortress Twickenham.

The foundations of the bastion of English rugby, however, are fast crumbling around a predominantly young side who appear to have no control, focus or cohesion, and seem to have no sense of direction or leadership from any quarter.

The stats on paper should really have determined the result before the starting whistle; despite having never scored a try at Twickenham, 18 months ago Argentina drew against the British & Irish Lions in Cardiff 25-25; they have defeated world number 2 France on the last four occasions they have met, including in Marseille where up until then the French side were unbeaten; earlier this year they lost to the world’s best team, New Zealand by only 6 points, and all but one of the starting XV play in England, France and Ireland for top professional clubs. More importantly, the Pumas had trained together as a complete team only twice over 4 days.

And England? Prior to Saturday they had lost the last six consecutive games and suffered their biggest defeat in history at home against New Zealand. Since the 2003 World Cup, they had lost 16 of the 27 matches played. After the appalling state of play following the this year’s Six Nations defeats, the entire coaching staff were dismissed, but at the 11^th hour, an about turn was made and the axe fell on Performance Director Chris Spice instead of Head Coach Andy Robinson, in an effort to change the fortunes of the former World Champions. But despite this wholesale remodelling of the performance management, and the appointment of Rob Andrew as the Elite Director of Rugby, England have continued to nose-dive, and this was the singularly most important two hours to prove all was not lost.

However, all the planning in the world could not have helped on Saturday. It took seven minutes for England to concede their first penalty which took the score to 3-3. Within the next three minutes, the home side had committed another two successive offences thanks to both the captain, Martin Corry, and vice-captain Charlie Hodgson, which fortunately for England, Contepomi could not convert to points. Ben Cohen then threw a sly punch at the Argentine hooker, Mario Ledesma but avoided being sent off by Deaker, probably in the hope that the players would settle. The most deathly silence resounded around the stadium - the England crowd had never been so quiet.

It was twenty-six minutes before Argentina were even remotely threatened by the men in white crossing into their 22, but Grewcock lost the ball forward, and within two minutes Argentina had forced the ball back into the England 22. Hodgson missed a penalty, but finally a glimmer of hope shone through as Paul Sackey touched down for a superb try beating three players en route, and with Hodgson’s conversion, England looked positive for a moment with the score at 10-3. Contepomi moved over to allow replacement fly-half Federico Todeschini take the kicking reigns, and by half time had successfully kicked the next two penalties to take the scoreline to 10-9 at half time.

In desperation, Andy Robinson began making indiscriminate changes to the England line-up. Shaun Perry, Danny Grewcock, Paul Sackey, Charlie Hodgson, Pat Sanderson and George Chuter were replaced by Peter Richards, Tom Palmer, Josh Lewsey, Toby Flood, Magnus Lund and Lee Mears. But within moments of Flood coming on he mis-passed to Allen and was intercepted by Todeschini who sprinted 40m to touch down and then converted his own try to take Argentina to a 9 point lead. With the score at now 10-19, a sharp break from Sanderson produced a smart passage of play drawing in Cohen, Richards and Balshaw who slung a terrible pass at Jamie Noon but thankfully England were awarded a penalty which Flood cleared.

In a flash of brilliant timing, Richards took advantage of his opposite number being flat on his back and got the ball out to Balshaw at the Argentine 22 who shot down the line and took England to within one point, but young Flood missed the conversion and score remained at 18-19.

England’s mistakes continued mounting, and Argentine legend Agustin Pichot found the weak link in England’s back row and half backs and consistently exploited this to Argentina’s advantage. This basic error of playing men out of the position they play week in week out for their clubs has to be a contributing factor to the result. England gave away another two penalties before time was up no thanks to Ben Cohen overrunning his mark and Julian White causing an obstruction, and the score finally settled at 18-25. England tried desperately to gain some dignity by equalising, but no matter how hard they pushed towards the tryline, the Argentine defence stood firm.

Before the final whistle had even gone, England Coach Andy Robinson was scurrying away down the tunnel into the changing room. And as the home team went to leave the hallowed turf, the crowd showed their disappointment in droves, but just as clearly cheered the winners during their lap of honour.

Without detracting from a magnificent Argentine win, England and the RFU have nothing to be even remotely proud of. The farce began when the professional All Blacks from a rugby nation were paid £1 million for their presence on the opening weekend of the South Stand. Argentina has no such thing as a professional club in her entire country. Players are either amateurs or ply their trade in Europe to enable them to earn a living. The Pumas were not even afforded their own flag on the pitch at Twickenham for the anthems, let alone given any remuneration for visiting the home of English Rugby. The Argentineans have been knocking on the door of the professional sides for years to get included in regular international tournaments outside of the World Cup, but both the Six Nations and Tri Nations have firmly kept it shut.

For a country that has all the odds stacked against it yet manages to pull together a consistent match-winning side with no formal funding, sponsorship or infrastructure, its about time that the rugby playing nations of the world afforded Argentina some respect and let them in.

England, on the other hand have far deeper rooted problems. There  is absolutely no point in having the infrastructure and funding etc. when the team could not catch a cold. There are calls from all sides of the English rugby world for Robinson’s head on a platter. But it was not Robinson out there on the pitch. This particular team has in fact only been together for a relatively short time. That does not excuse them from being incapable of performing on the world stage for 80 minutes. On Saturday there looked like very little hope of England being able to win a match in the near future; even with South Africa dealing with their own demons, it is unlikely the rot can be stopped at Twickenham.

Fundamental changes need to be made at every level of England’s Elite; the ‘new’ coaches Brian Ashton, John Wells and Mike Ford have to take some responsibility since they have been in position for six months now, as should the players themselves, but the Elite set up needs to have a very close look at what remains in place since it all started to go wrong. The selection of the squad is down to all four coaches and Rob Andrew, so passing the buck is not an option. Apart from Andy Robinson, only the senior management at Twickenham is still there - the RFU Chairman Francis Baron, RFU CEO, Martyn Thomas, and Club England Chairman, John Spencer appear to be hell bent on spending all their time in court fighting with Premier Rugby and have completely forgotten the point of the game.
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The papers are full of similar opinion from all sides: “For England's sake, it is time for Robinson to stand down“ says Will Greenwood, 2003 RWC winner.

Brian Moore, former England and British Lion, “had Argentina not chosen poorly on several occasions, they could well have scored another three tries, while England's backs… stuttered from one poorly executed manoeuvre to the next”.

"This non-performance of quite breathtaking incompetence and even lack of heart and passion marked the end of the excuses, the end of the right to blame others, the end of the illusion that something was happening behind the closed doors of this England squad that would turn them into a rugby team", Stephen Jones, The Times. 

"England have failed, failed and failed again", Stuart Barnes, former England and British Lion.

It appears to everyone outside of Rugby House that unless some radical changes are made immediately, forget about defending the World Cup next year, if England continue in this self-destruct mode, they will not even make it through the pool stages of the tournament. The management say they don't want to take a knee-jerk reaction halfway through the series; its about time they wake up and smell the coffee.

England: I Balshaw; P Sackey (J Lewsey 54min), J Noon, A Allen, B Cohen; C Hodgson (T Flood 52min), S Perry (P Richards 48 min); P Freshwater, G Chuter (L Mears 70min), J White, D Grewcock (T Palmer 50min), B Kay, M Corry (capt), P Sanderson (M Lund 70min), L Moody.

Argentina: JM Hernandez; J Nunez Piossek, M Avramovic (H Agulla 57min), G Tiesi (F Todeschini 24min), P Gomez Cora; F Contepomi, A Pichot (capt); M Ayerza, M Ledesma, O Hasan (M Scelzo 65min), I Fernandez Lobbe, P Albacete, JM Fernandez Lobbe (E Lozada 57-64min), G Longo, J Leguizamon (M Schusterman 67min).