This marks a interesting aspect of the English team's autumn perfect record that there were no debutants made their first cap throughout the series of matches, something not seen in a quarter of a century. Yet, Max Ojomoh's showing against the Argentine side while securing his second appearance felt like the arrival of a major talent.
Ojomoh was the key player in what was the team's most challenging performance of the November series. He scored the first try before setting up the other two. The setup for his teammate via a exquisite cross-field kick was the champagne moment of the opening period. Similarly, his popped pass to Henry Slade for the team's final score was just as eye-catching, capping off a fine first outing at Twickenham for the young player.
He has the sort of versatile skillset that every manager would want from their inside-centre. He can run, kick and pass, and he has appeared at fly-half and at both centre positions for his club this campaign.
Only a little over a week since Steve Borthwick might have felt he had finally unearthed his centre partnership for the future. But, the best compliment that can be given to Ojomoh is that the coach might need to think again. Ojomoh was initially selected to an England squad previously, but had to wait until the final match of the overseas trip to earn his first cap. Fitness issues to other players paved the way for Ojomoh to begin here, and he undoubtedly will be in consideration for a third cap when the squad regroup to start their championship campaign in the new year.
Where might the team have been against Argentina without him? Certainly they rode their luck and perhaps it is not surprising that he was their standout performer. The team experienced an inevitable drop-off in intensity following a significant victory over New Zealand. Maybe Borthwick ought to have made more changes.
A balanced view is required, though. It is tempting to criticize England for their failure to inject much urgency into this contest, or for nearly losing a fixture they were dominating. But, this outcome marks a clean sweep of four autumn fixtures for the initial occasion since recent years. The year ends with 11 straight wins after starting with a defeat. The team is halfway through the four-year tournament plan and things look much more positive for the coach than they did at this stage.
The manager appears that, with time remaining from the global tournament, he knows the vast majority of the team he will bring to the host nation. Naturally, there will be the odd bolter. But there are very few existing players of the squad who are not in contention for the upcoming event.
That represents an advantage because it posed an issue for his preceding coach, who struggled when it was clear that certain players were not going to feature in his plans. Borthwick seems to have grasped the nettle earlier, preventing the torrid start that affected the squad in the past.
Player rankings sound like they belong to seafarers of yesteryear, but coaches rely on them and the coach can be happy with his. Under different circumstances, the team might be dealing with a loss after a gut-wrenching late defeat. The fact they avoided that is largely due to Ojomoh, luck, and the strength of England's substitutes. While Borthwick plots a course to the championship, he has positive momentum after 11 wins in a row, and as a result we can overlook the lack of quality of this performance.
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