Leonard strikes the right chords

Had it been Karl Marx running out before the Supreme Soviet in Red Square, the standing ovation would have been no greater than that given spontaneously by some 62,000 at Twickenham for their most enduring player, his 86th cap eclipsing the mark set by Rory Underwood.

When Martin Johnson and the rest felt the coast was clear, the warmth of the reception left no doubt that the crowd had come to acclaim them for beating Australia rather than berate them for going on strike.

England, to their undisguised relief, had been on a winner of sorts long before Ben Cohen responded to the most traumatic fortnight of his life with the only try of a trying match, one which maintains his record of scoring in every international he has played at Twickenham.

In reality, they had been a winner from the moment they drove into the stadium and negotiated the paddy-field of the west car park.

The heavy industrial action of midweek may have strained relationships within the camp but the Red Rose brigade, up from the shires in their striped blazers, cavalry twills and gumboots, banished apprehension within the team that they would be publicly rebuked for daring to stand up for their worker's rights.

Johnson, for instance, had no way of knowing whether he would be perceived by some as not so much captain of his country, more the first beetle-browed trades union leader to take his men out since George Woodcock led the TUC back in the Sixties.

The sights and sounds surrounding the team coach on the short journey from their hotel in Bagshot told him that no lasting damage had been done. 'Wherever we were driving through, people clapped, waved and cheered,' he said.

'It was the usual stuff and it was just fantastic. Off-the-field turbulence is nothing new in rugby and you have to be responsible for your actions but I never heard a cross word.

We appreciate their support massively.'

That the actions of their barrack-room lawyers should have been held to greater scrutiny than those of the team in their struggle to overcome Argentina 19-0 simply underlined the extraordinary events of an extraordinary week.

What's more, the crowd stayed with their team despite a performance which must have sorely tried their patience.

England making heavy weather of beating durable but ordinary opponents may have been in keeping with the foul conditions overhead and underfoot but the elements, however nasty, are no excuse.

For a team aspiring to beat the world, Johnson's men dropped the ball so often that the English management might consider finding time this week to show them a video of how to play wet weather rugby, as exhibited by New Zealand during a howling downpour in Wellington against Australia four years ago.

Woodward made glowing reference to 'a great team building-up', which was a bit hard to understand considering how far short they fell of the standards set by the last truly great Test team, the All Blacks of Sean Fitzpatrick, Zinzan Brooke and Michael Jones. England won comfortably enough but not without making a fair old hash of it.

With South Africa looming on Saturday, they cannot afford a repeat and expect to get away with it.

For all their limitations, the Pumas would have had them in some trouble had Mike Catt's flying ankle-tapper not stopped the best wing on the field, Argentina's Ignacio Corleto, scoring the first try.

Cohen was given the run-around on that occasion but he struck 10 minutes later when Jonny Wilkinson's grubber bounced off a padded post for the Northampton wing to pick up and slide over beneath the crossbar.

That was England's lot though Cohen would surely have had a hat-trick if only Iain Balshaw had passed him the ball and Matt Dawson not ignored a 3-1 overlap to kick towards the corner.

England's forward domination meant they were never going to lose and Argentina's inability to offer more than stout defence meant they were never going to win. As the match lurched towards anti-climax, coach Andy Robinson could at least gain satisfaction from a clean sheet, England's first since they beat Wales 24-0 to win the Grand Slam eight years and 77 matches ago.

For those tuning into the Ref Link, an audio hook-up to the official's microphone, there were a few odd moments of light relief.

Such as when Alan Lewis, the Irish referee, invited the line-out combatants Carlos Fernandez Lobbe and Danny Grewcock to shake hands after lecturing them about spoiling what he questionably called 'a grand game of rugby'. 'No,' said Lobbe 'we are not friends.'

Pumas scrum half Augustin Pichot blamed not just his team but England for 'cheating very well', a point which he stressed was more of a compliment than a complaint about what they got away with in the rucks.

South Africa, he said, had cheated in much the same way in Buenos Aires a fortnight earlier.

The circumstances were very different, of course, but in the end England could have done worse than borrow a famous line from their Seventies Lion, John Pullin, on leading his country to Dublin in defiance of terrorist threats after Wales and Scotland had refused to go: 'We might not have been very good, but at least we turned up.'

A grim match to end a grim week.