If Eddie Jones, assessing the situation in the expected cauldron of 25,000 locals raging beneath the Andes, decides to empty his bench – and he usually does – England will blood more new caps in this first Test against Argentina than they have since 1947.
The coach has selected 11 fresh faces in his squad of 23. Seventy years ago, England fielded 14 because they had to. It was their first Test since the hiatus in international rugby that was the Second World War. This time the circumstances are only slightly less compelling. Jones has precious little choice with 30 players unavailable for this first Test, of two, in the city of San Juan, 1,000km inland from Buenos Aires, wedged up against the Andes and Chile beyond.
It is not the All Blacks at Eden Park, but Argentina in Argentina is about as intense a furnace in which to forge new players as Jones could have chosen. “It’s one of the greatest challenges in world rugby,” he said with the grin that assures he is delighted with the situation. “Everyone is nice to you and everyone smiles, ‘yes sir, what would you like sir?’ And then comes the game. Bang. It’s on. That’s the difference here.”
Tom Curry is the headline selection, the Sale flanker set to become England’s youngest debutant – at just shy of 19 – since Jonny Wilkinson was introduced in 1998, a couple of months before Curry was born. Wilkinson came on as a winger for the last few minutes of a comfortable win against Ireland; Curry is going to have to mix it from the start with a pack of Pumas. He’s England’s youngest starter for 90 years.
The reception on the pitch will be ferocious, as will the backdrop. The Estadio San Juan de Bicentenario is a sell-out, and the locals, whatever the sport, do not enter an arena anything less than well up for it. “When we come to these provinces the people are fanatics,” says Martin Landajo, the Argentina scrum-half. “The Argentinian crowd is like a football crowd. They will insult you, shout offensive things. It is not the same as England where you have the people sitting together and nothing happens. If you are a bit cheeky they may do something to you.”
Fortunately, Curry, whose identical twin, Ben, is also on tour, seems a well brought-up fellow. At the other end of the experience spectrum, Dylan Hartley, on 84 caps, is sharing with him. He describes Curry as a studious room-mate who does his stretches every day and rings his mum. Such conscientiousness will have to be enhanced on Saturday by something more elemental, but Jones and Hartley have great faith in their young charges.
The opposition are more of a known quantity than England’s thrown-together XV, which includes three other new caps in Harry Williams, Mark Wilson and Alex Lozowski. Another five have fewer than a dozen caps each. Argentina boast 528, spread more evenly throughout their XV than England’s 345, 215 of which are shared between Hartley, Danny Care and Mike Brown.
The Pumas’ squad is entirely taken from the Jaguares, Argentina’s sole team in Super Rugby. They are the only other international side whose selection policy is as strict as the All Blacks’, so some of their best players are ineligible. The Jaguares have graced the Super 18 with some fabulous play but a consistent winning formula remains elusive. In this, their second season, they won four of their first five matches, then lost six of the next seven.
For now, the nascent arrangement between the Jaguares and Pumas is clearly unsatisfactory, the two sides essentially the same, but it has introduced the players to the rigours of regular professionalism. “In the future it will help us,” says Landajo.
He expects the dynamic of international rugby to galvanise the Pumas. “Jaguares is more like a job; this is our passion.”
Jones considers this the perfect challenge by which to test his youngsters, even if he knows patience will be required. “You don’t expect them to be world beaters on their first start. It is a process. I remember giving Matt Giteau his debut [for Australia]. He was terrible. He dropped the first ball, threw two bounce passes and was absolute rubbish. Second Test he was a little bit better and then his career blossomed.”
Words of assurance, perhaps, for Lozowski, who starts at inside centre. But for Williams, who makes his debut via a colourful route that took in a degree in English and sports science, a healthy social life, a stint as a pro with Jersey before winding up as a Premiership champion with Exeter last month, and his fellow prop, Ellis Genge, on one cap, the proposition is more brutal.
Jones, enjoying a similarly healthy social life, took a trip to Argentina when he was a teenager himself in 1979. “I remember the Australian scrum getting pushed back. You could see the tractor marks in the ground. That was when the bajada was at its peak.”
The bajada is the scrummaging technique around which Argentina built their first great side in the 70s and 80s. It was belligerent, focused and unrelenting. Few could deal with it.
We live in more enlightened times now, wherein Pumas are seen running with the ball, but that primal threat remains integral to Argentinian rugby. For rugby boys, Argentina in Argentina is an initiation ceremony without equal. England’s mission is to emerge from Saturday’s inferno with a few more fully formed men.
