At some stage during Saturday’s utterly mediocre encounter at Twickenham, a memory may have flickered across Martin Johnson’s mind of another dank day against Argentina nine years ago. A far better England team than the present one struggled to beat the Pumas 19-0, scoring only the one try (also by a wing) at the end of a week of rancour during which the players briefly threatened strike action against the RFU.

Johnson, who captained that side, faces another week of rancour now, from outside rather than within. As his players regroup to prepare for New Zealand on the final weekend of the Investec Challenge Series, he has to find a way of doing what another of his predecessors as manager, Clive Woodward, did in 1997: convince his team to go out and play with no fear and, moreover, demonstrate the skills that won them selection in the first place.

“It was a long 80 minutes to watch, I probably aged 20 years,” Johnson said. “Fear is always there — it’s what you turn it into. The guys have to trust themselves a lot more.”

Before the game Mark Cueto, one of England’s better players, had spoken of a Plan B in case of bad weather but England lapsed into that plan before giving a more constructive game a chance, in thrall to the wet and blustery conditions, to the occasion, to their shortcomings.

This could have been a different game, a different result if Martín Rodríguez had kicked more than three of his six penalty attempts. The same is true for England, because an unusually fallible Jonny Wilkinson missed three penalties in the second half when England were trying to inject some pace into their game. But Rodríguez, 24, was winning his first cap, one of the new generation whose efforts so encouraged Santiago Phelan, his national coach.

England were fortunate to be on level terms at the interval. Rodríguez twice punished scrum offences but his colleagues promptly conceded avoidable penalties. Wilkinson, who opened with a well-struck dropped goal, added two penalties but the decisive score came with no more than ten minutes remaining and tension thick in the air: James Haskell, playing better at No 8 than his experience of the position warranted, made the break carried on by Steve Borthwick and Paul Doran-Jones. The ruck ball was moved left and Lewis Moody expertly held possession before giving Matt Banahan the run around the posts.

Even then, after Wilkinson took a blow to the face and both half backs were replaced. Argentina attacked off yet another knock-on by Ugo Monye but they failed to vary their play and the defence, albeit with huge relief, remained intact.

Scorers: England: Try: Banahan (70min). Conversion: Wilkinson. Penalty goals: Wilkinson 2 (20, 39). Dropped goal: Wilkinson (6). Argentina: Penalty goals: Rodríguez 3 (14, 26, 37).

Scoring sequence (England first): 3-0, 3-3, 6-3, 6-6, 6-9, 9-9 (half-time), 16-9.

England: U Monye (Harlequins); M Cueto (Sale Sharks), D Hipkiss (Leicester), S Geraghty (Northampton), M Banahan (Bath); J Wilkinson (Toulon; rep: A Goode, Brive, 74), P Hodgson (London Irish; rep: D Care, Harlequins, 74); T Payne (London Wasps; rep: P Doran-Jones, Gloucester, 63), D Hartley (Northampton; rep: S Thompson, Brive, 69), D Bell (Bath), L Deacon (Leicester), S Borthwick (Saracens), T Croft (Leicester; rep: J Worsley, London Wasps, 63), L Moody (Leicester), J Haskell (Stade Français).

Argentina: H Agulla (Brive); L Borges (Albi), G Tiesi (Harlequins), M Rodríguez (Rosario), M Comuzzi (Pucara); S Fernández (Hindu), A Lalanne (London Irish; rep: A Figuerola, CASI, 74); R Roncero (Stade Français), M Ledesma (Clermont Auvergne), M Scelzo (Clermont Auvergne; rep: M Ayerza, Leicester, 66), E Lozada (Toulon; rep: M Carizza, Biarritz, 55), P Albacete (Toulouse), T Leonardi (SIC), A Abadie (Rovigo; rep: A Campos, Montauban, 34), J M Fernández Lobbe (Toulon).

Referee: N Owens (Wales).

Attendance: 78,743.