For all the talk of starters and finishers and making full use of the 23, England need the energy of Van Poortvliet
It was not quite his first touch. Jack van Poortvliet had already thrown a couple of passes before scampering through the heart of Argentina to lift Twickenham from an anxious lull.
Ultimately, the intervention was in vain and England sank to a frustrating defeat. Even so, the 21-year-old’s solo try, just 30 seconds after joining the fray as a replacement for Ben Youngs, reinforced that he is surely ready to start more regularly.
Scrum-halves are taught to scan the fringes before they arrive at rucks and Van Poortvliet had spotted Juan Martín González circling behind the breakdown, filling in on the far side yet right leaving an enticing gap to England’s left:
There was no sense of him settling into the game upon his arrival. He simply scooped up the ball and backed his first instinct to bolt through the gap. And he kept going, powering though the scrambling tackles of two Pumas – Juan Cruz Mallía and Mateo Carreras – to stretch over: