Argentina beat England in Salta to level the series 1-1

Argentina won the second match of the two Test series against England 24-22 at Padre Martearena Stadium on Saturday, redeeming themselves after last weekend’s loss at Old Trafford.

It was a strengthened Pumas side in front of a packed home ground, which proved an entirely different prospect to that which faced England a week ago.

Veterans Mario Ledesma, Marcos Ayerza, and Rimas Alvarez Kairelis boosted the pack, as the home side put huge pressure on the visitors, resulting in an early try after just two minutes. Juan Manuel Leguizamon stormed through a huge gap after a turnover at the lineout.

Horacio Agulla then broke through the line before combining beautifully with the flying wing Gonzalo Camacho, who flew in at the corner for a great try.

Four successive penalties by Andy Goode had England trailing 21-15 before Argentina extended their lead with a trademark drop from flyhalf Juan Martin Hernandez.

England scored with four minutes to go through a well worked try that had big wing Matt Banahan scoring his second try in two weeks, but it wasn’t enough as the Pumas easily ran down the clock.

"Argentina improved dramatically," Ledesma said. "We conceded a few penalties in the third quarter, but we regrouped at the end. We were not as tired as they thought we were."

Try scorer on the day Banahan was optimistic despite the loss."It was a very hostile environment but if you can play well in the worst places, hopefully when you visit the nicer places your standards will only rise," he said.

"To come to Argentina will probably make or break an England player as we only had about 10 fans there and it was really noisy. I was pleased with the way it went."

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Time: 04:17

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