Bronze beauties: Dan and Earl steer England to third in the end

AT FIRST glance a bronze medal third place 2023 World Cup finish for an England side which came into the tournament looking like a busted flush after three years of mediocrity is cause for celebration. 

- NICK CAIN

However, it is too soon to break out the bunting, even though Steve Borthwick’s England squad finished on a positive note in Paris with a dogged performance that brought them a narrow victory over Argentina – and sent Ben Youngs, their retiring record-holding 127 cap scrum-half, riding high into the international sunset.

It took England to two tournament wins over their South American pool rivals, and a measure of their improvement could be that this time, rather than relying on George Ford’s drop goals and penalties as they did in Marseille seven weeks ago, they scored two tries, through Ben Earl and Theo Dan.

Set against that, they also conceded two tries, with Tomas Cubelli and Santiago Carreras crossing to keep the Pumas within striking distance until the final whistle. England also rode their luck, when, six minutes from time the usually reliable Argentine fly-half veteran, Nicolas Sanchez, missed a straightforward penalty which would have levelled it at 26-26, and probably forced extra time.

To England’s credit, they kept their noses in front to finish with a tournament record of six wins, with their only reverse coming in last weekend’s cliff-edge semi-final loss to South Africa.

The only notes of caution – and they are significant – is that the only nation England beat which is ranked among the top eight sides in the world was Argentina, and they avoided all the Six Nations teams from the stronger side of the draw who have beaten them regularly.