England completed their Rugby World Cup campaign with a narrow victory over Argentina in the third-place play-off in Paris.

England got off to a quick 13-0 lead when Ben Earl slid over. But Argentina fought back and were briefly ahead thanks to tries by Tomas Cubelli and Santiago Carreras. That was until England’s Theo Dan charged down a kick and crossed.

England was ahead after Owen Farrell’s kick kept them ahead as he traded penalties with Nicolas Sanchez in a nail-biting finish.

Argentina made a late attack on England’s line, but Sanchez missed a penalty that would have tied the game. This let Steve Borthwick’s team finish France 2023 with a win.

Early on, it looked like England was going to easily win, so when the game was over, everyone was very happy.

That means England’s campaign is over, just like it began. In Marseille seven weeks ago, in the heat, they beat the Pumas 27–10.

England had lost five of their last six games and were facing 77 minutes without Tom Curry, who had been sent off, three minutes into the game. Things did not look good for them.

They won that game, though, and it was the start of a season in which they were only three minutes and one point away from beating South Africa in the semi-finals and making it to Saturday’s final.

Several of England’s young stars pushed their cases for future inclusion in a game that wasn’t a knockout but was better than the teams’ last meeting.

Hooker Dan impressed with his drive and energy, and Marcus Smith was brave and sharp in attack, even if not all of his ideas worked out.

There were rumours that Henry Arundell, who scored five tries in England’s rout of Chile in the pool stage, might try to beat Chris Ashton’s record of six tries in a single World Cup, which he set in 2011, or even beat Will Jordan, who has scored eight tries so far this tournament.

During the first half, he didn’t touch the ball at all, and when he had the chance to kick the ball, he missed the mark and gave away a penalty.

England may have been tired at the end of the game, but they got off to a great start. Curry led his team out to celebrate his 50th cap, and after a rough week in which he was accused of being called a racial slur during the semi-final loss to South Africa, he set the tone right away.

It took the 25-year-old a while to stop a breakdown in the second minute, but he did it and Farrell easily turned it into three points.

Earl, another great player for England this season, scored the first try eight minutes in. He did this by picking a great line off Smith to beat the drift defence after hooker Dan did some great work.

After just ten minutes, Farrell made another penalty kick to make it 13-0. It looked like the calm Pumas from their semi-final match against New Zealand had come back to the Stade de France.

But Argentina finally found some fight, helped by the cheers of the crowd who sang “Allez les Bleus” in honour of their new uniform.

Emiliano Boffelli made the right choice the next time he had a similar chance: he took the points instead of calling for a scrum from a penalty close in.

Half of the scrum At the end of the first half, Cubelli ducked through a bunch of legs from close range to cut England’s lead to six points.

At the start of the second half, there was a quick exchange of converted tries, with Dan in the middle of both of them.

As the Argentina fly-half showed the speed that got him a spot on the wing for Gloucester in the past, Carreras brushed off the England hooker.

But two minutes later, Carreras missed a clearing kick, which let Dan charge down, pick up, and score to give England a 23-17 lead again.

But Argentina could tell that England was still having trouble, and a Boffelli penalty tied the game at three points.

Earl made a crucial turnover deep in his own territory, which made Argentina’s coach Michael Cheika slam the furniture in the coaching box in anger at the way referee Nic Berry handled the breakdown.

Cheika wasn’t happy either that the referee gave his team a scrum penalty, which Farrell gladly kicked over for a 26–20 lead.

Sanchez pushed England back again, but when his team was given a penalty in the 75th minute just outside the England 22-meter line, he chose to kick for the posts instead of the corner to try to score the game-winning try and tie the game.

He may have felt bad about his choice because his kick missed the stick and the touch judges’ flags stayed where they were.

Still time for Argentina to make the English fans go crazy in the stands. Juan Martin Gonzalez rode off into space down one wing, and Mateo Carreras was on fire down the other wing when George Ford bravely stopped him.

England won the Rugby World Cup in 2003 and came in second place three times, in 1991, 2007 and 2019. This is their first time in third place.

England has only played in one bronze medal match before, against France in 1995, and lost 19–9.

Ben Youngs will leave the tournament with a medal, even though it wasn’t the colour he wanted before the tournament. He has played in 127 Tests and won 127 of them.