England

England star Delon Armitage delivered a wonderful pass for Matt Banahan to score his try against Argentina on Saturday but neither player was in a particularly good mood after the team went down 24-22 in Salta. 

Bath wing Banahan made it two tries in two weeks against Argentina when he went over in the second half but, despite a brave comeback, England had left themselves far to much to do in the final minutes and went down in the second of two tests between the teams. 

England were in good spirits coming into the match, having beating the Pumas 37-15 at Old Trafford the previous weekend, but failed to reproduce a strong performance and were quickly taken to task by a motivated Argentinean lineup.

London Irish fullback Delon Armitage said he was pleased to see Banahan on the scoresheet again but was disappointed with his teams inability to back up last weekend's efforts.

"I thought Matt Banahan finished his try really well and I was glad to be part of it but the build involved a lot of players so a number of people should take credit for the end result.

"It wasn't quite enough to get us back in to the game and we can't afford to let teams to build leads like the one the Puma's did on Saturday. In parts we showed what we can do but we need to do that with more consistency."

Banahan meanwhile, after making only his second start for England, admitted that he was hugely disappointed to come out on the wrong side of the scoreline in Salta but still hailed the two-test series as an overall success.

"Although I've been happy with my form I always want to contribute more but today isn't about me or the try I scored it's about the result. We lost and we're all disappointed.

"l though we came back well the eighteen point margin was just too big to overcome although we had a good go at it.

"Today was different from Old Trafford. A different event a different atmosphere and a different result. Although we lost there have been a lot of positives from the last two games and we must take those forward."

RFU