England were lucky, oh so lucky. The Otago stadium may well be hermetically sealed as an indoor venue but the collective sigh of relief from the thousands of England fans at the final whistle made a significant noise as it reverberated around the ground.
England had said all week that they knew what was headed their way, an Argentine tempest, the fury and elemental force that had taken the 2007 Rugby World Cup by storm.
Yet for long stretches of this match, England looked completely and utterly bewildered by what was happening. They were bullied off the ball, unable to get any sort of foothold, and if Argentina had had a reliable goal-kicker then England might never have been able to get back into the game.
Argentina missed 18 points with the boot (21 if you count a speculative drop goal attempt), and although Jonny Wilkinson himself fluffed five successive penalty shots, England would have been out of the reckoning by then.
Argentina also lost their key playmaker, Felipe Conteponi, as well as centre Gonzalo Tiesi.
All in all, this was an England display lacking in tempo, intensity, imagination and gumption. England managed to wriggle out of a desperately fraught situation only through the impact of their replacement bench.
Dylan Hartley and Matt Stevens injected some much needed urgency to the forward play while scrum-half Ben Young, scampering brightly on his return from injury, scored the decisive try in the 65th minute.
Wilkinson added a conversion and then a penalty, and England had somehow escaped.
The rest of the world will not be quaking at this performance.
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