It was job done for England but little more. A disjointed, frustrating performance saw Eddie Jones' side open their autumn programme with a 21-8 win over Argentina, but in a game littered with the referee's whistle, neither team managed to open up the match and get some tempo in attack.
After England established a 14-3 half-time lead, the third quarter passed by with barely any incident. There was a moment where the stadium's screen showed Jones lose his temper -- he threw his notebook to the table and a pen went flying. We have seldom seen that from Jones. Maybe the players caught it, but moments later England finally found some momentum with Alex Lozowski, only on the field for five minutes, making a break and putting Semesa Rokoduguni over for the try that ended the contest.
Argentina offered little in attack; England's 22 stood empty for much of the match bar the odd wayward kick which was fielded easily by Anthony Watson.
Prior to the Test, Jones said he was weighing up looking at other options at fullback; Mike Brown's exit after 22 minutes meant Watson had a good run there but the incident leading to the Harlequins man leaving the pitch was a case in point when it came to erratic officiating from Marius van der Westhuizen.
The call to sin-bin Joaquin Tuculet was wrong -- it was either a case of play on, with Tuculet contesting in the air with Brown for the ball, or a red card. There could be no middle ground, but in a match largely played in a stalemate, it seemed fitting the official managed to pick the wrong option out of three.
It was a quiet old Twickenham crowd that sat in the stands. The hubbub was like the noise you hear before the start of a concert; it barely rose above that apart from when the tries were scored or a bone-shaking hit was put in. Maybe this is a sign of the expectation around England now; they have done so well under Jones that we all expect flawless performances whenever they run out.
England will always try to take positives and they are Sam Underhill's performance at openside and the fact a number of fringe players got a Test at Twickenham under their belts with Jones looking to build depth ahead of the 2019 World Cup.
England were without 12 players for this match through suspension, injury and the decision to rest Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje. Farrell, on waterboy duties, looked animated at times, frustrated at not being out there but Henry Slade's pass for Rokoduguni's try will give him some credit in the bank as he attempted to showcase his skills at inside centre.
But England's star man was Underhill. This was his first Test at Twickenham, and just his second cap having made his debut against the Pumas in June. He put in a huge shift, repelling anything in blue and white and making 19 tackles over all. With Tom Curry out for the rest of the autumn series, the No. 7 shirt is surely Underhill's for the next two matches.
England will also look at George Ford's immaculate pass for Nathan Hughes' first-half try as something to take away from the game, and their defence and set piece were impressive throughout.
But their inability to string together a series of attacks will have frustrated Jones. Rokoduguni's try was his first opportunity to stretch his legs; Watson played well at fullback but the support runners were not there when he went on one of his darts into Argentina's side of the field and they lacked another gainline-breaking forward.
Argentina offered little. They came here preaching an all-court game plan, but they never implemented it. They only troubled the tryline in the closing stages, and despite Underhill's best efforts they finally got across it after a 30-phase move saw Nicolas Sanchez score.
This will be a match Jones will have learned a lot from. He would have seen Lozowski's impact from the bench, the performance of Underhill and how the team managed to keep themselves organised in defence even without Farrell, Itoje and a host of others. He will have paid close attention to every ounce of this match and you feel it will have done wonders for narrowing down the World Cup squad in his mind.
But back to the present, they must play better next week if they are to knock over the Wallabies.