England clinched third place at the Rugby World Cup for the first time in their history with a 26-23 beating of Argentina in Saturday's bronze final at the Stade de France.
Seven weeks on from opening their bid for glory with a 27-10 win over the Pumas, tries from Ben Earl and Theo Dan alongside a quartet of Owen Farrell penalties saw Steve Borthwick's men make lightning strike twice and finish a turbulent World Cup campaign on the podium.
No fewer than eight new faces were brought into the England XV for the penultimate game of the tournament, including a recall for Marcus Smith at fullback, while Ben Youngs was deployed at scrum-half in his 127th and farewell international appearance.
Borthwick's experimental side came out all guns blazing during the first few moments, where Farrell's third-minute penalty opened the scoring before Earl continued his sensational World Cup campaign with the first try of the evening.
The Saracens hotshot - who was one of the stars of the show during England's quarter-final success over Fiji - collected the ball from a crisp Smith pass and ran the line to dive over before Farrell added the extras.
Another two Farrell penalties either side of a customary Emiliano Boffelli kick saw England extend their healthy lead, but the momentum was with the Pumas just before the break thanks to a rapid surge and exemplary teamwork, which ended with Tomas Cubelli forcing his way just over the try line.
Theo Dan on the loose! 🦏
— ITV Rugby (@ITVRugby) October 27, 2023
The hooker charges over for @EnglandRugby 💥#RWC2023 | #ARGvENG pic.twitter.com/Df6rHMmHxi
There was a hint of a forward pass in the build-up from Lucio Cinti - which replays showed was clearly the case - but Argentina's effort was allowed to stand as they cut the deficit down to six heading into the interval.
The England defence did not do themselves any favours during the dying embers of the first half either, and they were exposed again with just two minutes of the second half gone, as the slippery Santiago Carreras evaded challenges from Dan and Farrell and celebrated before diving through the posts.
However, there was a comical role reversal straight from the restart, as Carreras's kick was charged down by Dan, whose earlier miscalculation was immediately forgiven as he wiped out Argentina's slender lead in the 44th minute.
As replacements arrived en masse for both teams, penalties from Boffelli and Nicolas Sanchez either side of Farrell's fourth of the evening saw Argentina reduce the deficit to just three points heading into the final 10 minutes, but the former spurned a golden chance to draw the Pumas level from the tee in the 75th minute.
Prior to Sanchez's first miss in 13 kicks, a charging Mateo Carreras demonstrated tremendous strength to bounce Smith onto his backside, but England's physical dominance would prevail during a pivotal 78th-minute scrum as they righted the wrongs of their costly South Africa infringement.
Despite the best efforts of Mateo Carreras, Argentina settled for fourth place for the second time in three tournaments - having also lost to South Africa in the 2015 bronze final - and the tournament concludes with the Springboks' unmissable final against New Zealand on Saturday.
Ben Knapton
