Nations Championship 2026- Argentina vs England

Los Pumas and England are set to battle-it-out in Santiago del Estero, Argentina on Saturday. The fixture is a round three match in the inaugural Nations Championship. Both teams enter with one win and one loss each.

England arrive after claiming their second win of 2026 and, in doing so, ending a losing streak of five matches which included a first-ever defeat against Italy. The losses asked deep questions over the abilities of Steve Borthwick as England’s head coach.

Borthwick’s England started the Nations Championship with a heavy loss against the world champions in Johannesburg. They bounced back to humble Fiji 73-8 in Liverpool, England. That very match was dubious given that it, according to tournament rules, it was supposed to be a home game for England. Those in attendance saw a vastly different game than the 2023 World Cup warm-up when Fiji shocked Borthwick’s England.

Felipe Contepomi is balancing the needs of his players with the needs Argentina rugby. Despite decades of attempts, World Rugby is still unable to provide a global season. There are players yet to have an off-season since before the 2025 Rugby Championship. Others are being rested ahead of upcoming international test matches.

FORM GUIDE

Current World Ranking: 7 (84.06 points)

Date	Tournament	Opponent	Result	Score	Venue
Jul 4, 2026	Nations Championship	Scotland	Lost	38–47	Estadio Mario Kempes, Córdoba
Jul 11, 2026	Nations Championship	Wales	Won	35–21	Estadio del Bicentenario, San Juan
Jul 18, 2026	Nations Championship	England	Upcoming	—	Estadio Único, Santiago del Estero
Aug 8, 2026	International Test	South Africa	Upcoming	—	Estadio José Amalfitani, Buenos Aires
Aug 29, 2026	International Test	Australia	Upcoming	—	Estadio 23 de Agosto, Jujuy
Sep 5, 2026	International Test	Australia	Upcoming	—	Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza
Nov 6, 2026	Nations Championship	Ireland	Upcoming	—	Lansdowne Road, Dublin
Nov 14, 2026	Nations Championship	Italy	Upcoming	—	Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genoa
Nov 21, 2026	Nations Championship	France	Upcoming	—	Stade de France, Paris

Current World Ranking: 5 (84.75 points)

Date	Tournament	Opponent	Result	Score	Venue
Feb 7, 2026	Men’s Six Nations	Wales	Won	48–7	Twickenham Stadium, London
Feb 14, 2026	Men’s Six Nations	Scotland	Lost	20–31	Murrayfield, Edinburgh
Feb 21, 2026	Men’s Six Nations	Ireland	Lost	21–42	Twickenham Stadium, London
Mar 7, 2026	Men’s Six Nations	Italy	Lost	18–23	Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Mar 14, 2026	Men’s Six Nations	France	Lost	46–48	Stade de France, Paris
Jul 4, 2026	Nations Championship	South Africa	Lost	21–45	Ellis Park, Johannesburg
Jul 11, 2026	Nations Championship	Fiji	Won	73–8	Everton Stadium, Liverpool

STARTING LINEUP CHANGES

	IN	OUT
1	Mayco Vivas	Boris Wenger
13	Matías Moroni	Lucio Cinti

	Unchanged starting XV

DEBUT

– Emmanuel Iyogun

MOST CAPS

– P Matera (123), J Montoya (119), M Alemanno (101), G Petti (100), M Moroni (96), M Kremer (82), S Carreras (66)

– J George (112), E Genge (82), H Slade (76), T Curry (70), L Cowan-Dickie (60), B Earl (53), M Smith (52), O Chessum (37)

LEAST CAPS

– E Elías (2), J Moro (5), T Rapetti (5), B Wenger (7), P Delgado (10), S Benítez Cruz (11), J Piccardo (12)

– BJ van Rensburg (1), N Caluori (1), S Atkinson (6), A Opoku-Fordjour (8), H Pollock (12), I Feyi-Waboso (15), B Spencer (18)

NOTABLE ABSENTEES

– Thomas Gallo (LH), Eduardo Bello (TH), Joel Sclavi (TH), Franco Molina (LO), Pedro Rubiolo (LO), Juan Martín González (FL), Santiago Chocobares (CE), Juan Cruz Mallía (FB)

– Maro Itoje (LO), Sam Underhill (FL), Alex Mitchell (SH), George Furbank (FB), Freddie Stewart (FB)

NOTES

Los Pumas are undefeated at Santiago del Estero. Argentina defeated Scotland in 2022 and South Africa in 2024 at the Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades.
England is on a five-match-winning-streak against Argentina. Los Pumas last defeated England in 2022.
Julián Montoya captains Argentina in his 120th test match. He becomes the second Puma to reach 120 caps after Pablo Matera who will earn his 124th caps on Saturday.
Four Pumas forwards are test centurions in a 23 that has a combined total of 1018 test caps. Matera’s 123 caps account for 54.19% of the replacements’ 227 total test caps.
England’s 23 players have a combined total of 758 caps.
Replacement tight head Pedro Delgado is a hometown player from Santiago del Estero. Delgado is one of 7 players who play in the English Premiership (2026-2027 season). The seven are Delgado (Harlequins), Boris Wenger (Harlequins), Guido Petti (Harlequins), Santiago Carreras (Bath), Lucio Cinti (Saracens), Matías Moroni (Bristol Bears), and Joaquín Moro (Leicester Tigers).
Contepomi’s choices mean no player has debuted for Argentina thus far in 2026.
Steve Borthwick has named an unchanged line-up. It means Jack van Poortvliet is the starting scrum-half throughout July’s Nations Championship.
Prop Emmanuel Iyogun will make his England debut as a replacement.
Replacement back-rower Henry Pollock, taunted Argentine fans in Buenos Aires.
Replacement center Benhard Janse van Rensburg was not eligible for England until a week ago. He was not eligible for England until before England requested a change to eligibility laws to select him.
Los Pumas’ 23 players are from Argentina and are all homegrown.
Benhard Janse van Rensburg and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso are neither from England nor homegrown.
Jamie George continues as the stand-in captain for Maro Itoje. George will earn his 113th cap. George overtakes Owen Farrell to be the 4th most capped England player of all-time.
Ellis Genge and Ollie Chessum will support Jamie George as England vice-captains.
Julián Montoya has Santiago Carreras and Pablo Matera as his two vice-captains.

PREDICTION

Felipe Contepomi has designed a game plan built entirely around forward density. The Pumas will look to utilize the raw power of forwards. On the ground, the defensive strategy is to slow down England’s ruck speed to a crawl, using the breakdown ferocity of Marcos Kremer and Santiago Grondona to prevent the visitors from finding any attacking rhythm. Fly-half Tomás Albornoz will look to pull the trigger on chaotic, high-risk attacking phases rather than structured phase-play. Steve Borthwick has chosen absolute tactical continuity, signaling total confidence in a game plan centered around rapid transition and territory. England’s absolute top priority is maintaining a lightning-fast ruck speed. Marcus Smith and Fin Smith will execute a highly aggressive, contestable kicking strategy to bypass the Pumas’ fierce midfield defense. Despite being played in July it will not be cold; rather very warm afternoon conditions are expected. England are favorites to win in Santiago del Estero.

LINE-UPS

ARGENTINA
1 Mayco Vivas, 2 Julián Montoya (capt.), 3 Tomás Rapetti, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Matías Alemanno, 6 Santiago Grondona, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Joaquín Oviedo, 9 Gonzalo García, 10 Tomás Albornoz, 11 Mateo Carreras, 12 Justo Piccardo, 13 Matías Moroni, 14 Bautista Delguy, 15 Santiago Carreras

Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Boris Wenger, 18 Pedro Delgado, 19 Efraín Elías, 20 Pablo Matera, 21 Joaquin Moro, 22 Simón Benítez Cruz, 23 Lucio Cinti

ENGLAND
1 Ellis Genge, 2 Jamie George (capt.), 3.Joe Heyes, 4 Alex Coles, 5 George Martin, 6 Ollie Chessum, 7 Guy Pepper, 8 Ben Earl, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 10 Fin Smith, 11 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 12 Seb Atkinson, 13 Henry Slade, 14 Tommy Freeman, 15 Marcus Smith

Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Emmanuel Iyogun, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 Tom Curry, 20 Henry Pollock, 21 Ben Spencer, 22 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 23 Noah Caluori

MATCH INFO

Date: Saturday, July 18
Kickoff: 4:10pm (AR), 8:10pm (GB-ENG)
Venue: Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades, Santiago del Estero (Argentina)
Broadcasts: ESPN, Disney + (Argentina)
Weather Forecast: Sunny 26°; Wind S 14 km/h

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistants: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia), Paul Williams (New Zealand)
TMO: Brett Cronan (Australia)
Foul Play Review Officer (FPRO): Eric Gauzins (France)

HISTORY (1978-2026)

11-23-2026 – England 27-23 Argentina (London, GB-ENG)
07-12-2025 – Argentina 17-22 England (San Juan, AR)
07-05-2025 – Argentina 12-35 England (La Plata, AR)
10-27-2023 – England 26-23 Argentina (Paris, FR)*
09-09-2023 – England 27-10 Argentina (Marseille, FR) *
11-06-2022 – England 29-30 Argentina (London, GB-ENG)
10-05-2019 – England 39-10 Argentina (Tokyo, JP) *
11-11-2017 – England 21-8 Argentina (London, GB-ENG)
06-17-2017 – Argentina 25-35 England (Santa Fe, AR)
06-10-2017 – Argentina 34-38 England (San Juan, AR)
11-26-2016 – England 27-14 Argentina (London, GB-ENG)
11-09-2013 – England 31-12 Argentina (London, GB-ENG)
06-15-2013 – Argentina 26-51 England (Buenos Aires, AR)
06-08-2013 – Argentina 3-32 England (Salta, AR)
09-10-2011 – England 13-9 Argentina (Dunedin, NZ) *
11-14-2009 – England 16-9 Argentina (London, GB-ENG)
06-13-2009 – Argentina 24-22 England (Salta, AR)
06-06-2009 – England 37-15 Argentina (Manchester, GB-ENG)
11-11-2006 – England 18-25 Argentina (London, GB-ENG)
06-22-2002 – Argentina 28-26 England (Buenos Aires, AR)
11-25-2000 – England 19-0 Argentina (London, GB-ENG)
06-07-1997 – Argentina 33-13 England (Buenos Aires, AR)
05-31-1997 – Argentina 20-46 England (Buenos Aires, AR)
12-14-1996 – England 20-18 Argentina (London, UK)
05-27-1995 – England 24-18 Argentina (Durban, ZA) *
11-03-1990 – England 51-0 Argentina (London, GB-ENG)
08-04-1990 – Argentina 15-13 England (Buenos Aires, AR)
07-28-1990 – Argentina 12-25 England (Buenos Aires, AR)
06-06-1981 – Argentina 6-12 England (Buenos Aires, AR)
05-30-1981 – Argentina 19-19 England (Buenos Aires, AR)
10-14-1978 – England 13-13 Argentina (London, GB-ENG)