Rugby-Little to celebrate in toothless England's win

LONDON Nov 14 (Reuters) - Victory seemed like defeat at Twickenham on Saturday as England fans digested another toothless display by Martin Johnson's team.

A rare line break allowed winger Matt Banahan to score the only try of the match in the home team's 16-9 win over Argentina.

But, after last week's 18-9 defeat by Australia and ahead of next Saturday's clash with the All Blacks, the win could not disguise England's deep-rooted problems.

Against the Wallabies and for most of Saturday's error-strewn game England barely crossed the opposition 22, let alone threaten the tryline. Their slide to an unprecedented low of eighth in the world rankings is a fair reflection of their form.

Last week Australia captain Rocky Elsom said his team had been comfortable in defence and Argentina coach Santiago Phelan echoed those thoughts on Saturday.

"We analysed how England were going to play and they didn't surprise us," he told reporters. "We are disappointed to have lost, particularly because it was because of one mistake, but in another way we are satisfied."

Argentina, although ranked two places above England, were fielding a desperately inexperienced team, including a handful of amateurs and three debutants who got together only last week.

England, too, are suffering from an horrific injury situation. But, with their depth of playing talent and with their extensive preparation time, they should be producing more than has been on show in the last two games.

Manager Martin Johnson, never one to criticise his team if he can get away with a "we are going forward" sound bite, at least recognised that Saturday's performance was not up to scratch.

"DISAPPOINTING PERFORMANCE"

"Everyone was saying this week we have to beat Argentina but we have got to improve. I can't come off a performance like that and pretend that it was a good performance. It wasn't, but we won and if we play like that and win next week then we'll all be pretty happy," he said.

"At the end of it, we could have lost the game, as simple as that, but we didn't.

"It was a disappointing performance but when the pressure's on and the nerves are jangling it's about winning.

"A lot of it was individual errors and going into the second half it was going to be tight. Maybe it was a bit of nerves, they put pressure on you and it becomes a dog fight.

"It was tough to watch from our point of view. The players are happy they won but disappointed with what they did."

However, Johnson and his coaches have to shoulder much of the blame.

England's tactics of kicking away possession, usually via an up-and-under, would not have been of the players' making and against a team who showed themselves masters of that routine in the last World Cup it was questionable at least.

On current form, England are in line for a repeat of last November's 32-6 thrashing at the hands of New Zealand.

That loss was part of a trio of heavy defeats at the hands of the Tri-Nations countries and, while Johnson's standing as the 2003 World Cup-winning captain still earns him leniency, he will realise more than anyone that the clock is ticking with the next World Cup only two years away.

(Editing by John Mehaffey; To comment on this story: sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)