England v Argentina LIVE: Result and reaction as England win Rugby World Cup 2023 third place play-off

It’s a special evening for Ben Youngs – England’s most-capped male player will get one final runout for his country to end a stellar international career.

One of rugby’s nicest men, as well as one hell of a scrum half, he deserves this send-off in Paris.

It was thought that Michael Cheika would be departing Argentina after this tournament, but the head coach’s comments this week suggest that he may yet retain the role.

“I have no idea if it is my last game and I don’t think about it,” Cheika said on Thursday. “We have a team of players, coaches and with the UAR (Argentine Rugby Union) we have a very good relationship. We only talk about the game, not about personal feelings. The focus is on the match and seeing how we finish higher in this Rugby World Cup.”

It’s the game that players don’t want to play, fans don’t want to watch and the media don’t want to cover. All of which begs the question, why does the Rugby World Cup third/fourth place play-off still exist? Answers on a postcard please.

Actually, the answer is fairly simple, of course. It follows the old adage that when you’re not sure why something counter-intuitive is happening in sport, the reason is always the same. Money.

World Rugby and its sponsors will undoubtedly make a bit more cheddar from England facing Argentina tonight at relatively little expense, although it remains to be seen how many of the Stade de France’s 80,000 seats are filled, let alone what sort of atmosphere those in attendance tonight. You suspect it might not quite reach the level of fan delirium that some of the other instant classics at the Paris stadium have generated during this tournament.

Of the many ways that one could spend a Friday evening in Paris, competing in a third-place play-off would rank somewhere near the bottom, perhaps just above a night-time stumble into a particularly nasty section of the Seine. However much World Rugby dresses up what it insists on calling the bronze final, there is no escaping the fact that most players would, at this stage, rather be back at home with a bottle of beer, or enjoying some downtime with a verre de vin rouge in a Paris bistro.

“This is not the game you want to be playing in,” England assistant Richard Wigglesworth conceded this week. “You can be honest and say this isn’t the game that these two teams aimed to play in.”

Juan Cruz Mallia; Emiliano Boffelli, Lucio Cinti, Jeronimo de la Fuente, Mateo Carreras; Santiago Carreras, Tomas Cubelli; Thomas Gallo, Julian Montoya (captain), Francisco Gómez Kodela; Guido Petti Pagadizabal, Pedro Rubiolo; Juan Martin Gonzalez, Marcos Kremer, Facundo Isa

Replacements: Agustín Creevy, Joel Sclavi, Eduardo Bello, Matias Alemanno, Rodrigo Bruni, Lautaro Bazan Velez, Nicolás Sánchez, Matías Moroni.

Marcus Smith; Freddie Steward, Joe Marchant, Manu Tuilagi, Henry Arundell; Owen Farrell (captain), Ben Youngs; Ellis Genge, Theo Dan, Will Stuart; Maro Itoje, Ollie Chessum; Tom Curry, Sam Underhill, Ben Earl

Replacements: Jamie George, Bevan Rodd, Dan Cole, David Ribbans, Lewis Ludlam, Danny Care, George Ford, Ollie Lawrence

Ireland centre Bundee Aki and France scrum half Antoine Dupont are among four nominees for World Rugby Men’s Player of the Year despite their nations’ early exits from the Rugby World Cup.

Aki and Dupont join South Africa’s Eben Etzebeth and New Zealand’s Ardie Savea, who will feature in Saturday’s final at the Stade de France, on a four-man shortlist.

Eleven World Rugby awards will be handed out on Sunday night at a ceremony at the Opera Garnier in Paris, but the nominees and winners in a further four women’s categories will be announced and celebrated separately after the conclusion of WXV.

Savea is one of nine nominations from New Zealand across six categories for which shortlists have been unveiled.

England went within a whisker of qualifying for a second successive World Cup final only for South Africa’s Handre Pollard to shatter their dreams with a 79th-minute penalty.

The nail-biting 16-15 semi-final defeat which Steve Borthwick’s men led by nine points with 10 minutes remaining completed a tournament that surpassed expectations given their abysmal build-up.

Here, the PA news agency takes a closer look at a campaign concluded by the bronze final tonight.

And our columnist Stuart Hogg has had an in-depth look at why New Zealand’s wing double-act are so good, with particular praise for Will Jordan, who could become the first men’s player to score more than eight tries in a World Cup if he dots down tomorrow.

The former Scotland full-back has also picked his team of the tournament - with some bold calls...

All Blacks head coach Ian Foster very nearly lost his job last year, battling back from the brink to guide New Zealand into a World Cup final. Here’s how he did it: