MARSEILLE, France (AP) — George Ford kicked everything, including three first-half drop goals, to give 14-man England a pressure-relieving 27-10 win over Argentina at the Rugby World Cup on Saturday.
Written off ahead of the tournament and down a man from the opening minutes after flanker Tom Curry's head clash with Juan Cruz Mallia resulted in a red card, England took nearly every chance that came its way from a careless Argentina to start Pool D with a big win that no one saw coming.
Ford kicked his drop goals in the space of eight minutes near the end of the half, taking England from 3-3 and a tight start to 12-3 ahead in the blink of an eye. The flyhalf, who is standing in for suspended captain Owen Farrell, also landed six penalties for a flawless night with his right boot.
He had all of England's points.
England even bossed the set-piece despite being a man down very early in Marseille, as Argentina's errors and penalty count gave it no chance to fight back in a game many had the Pumas as favorites to win considering the rut the English were in heading to the Rugby World Cup.
“It could have gone very wrong, but we dug in for each other,” said England captain and flanker Courtney Lawes, who was at the heart of England's spirited performance. “It’s fantastic to be able to get a win.”
Argentina replacement Rodrigo Bruni scored the only try in the last minute when it was already over, as Argentina finally put a string of phases together without making a mistake to wear down an heroic England defense that had already done its job. Bruni bundled his way over in a forward surge.
The 80th-minute try was Argentina's first points since Emiliano Boffelli gave it a 3-0 lead after four minutes. Between the scores, England repelled everything else.
Curry became the first player to receive a red card at the Rugby World Cup via the new bunker review system after he raced into a tackle upright and his head smashed into Mallia's as the Argentina fullback came down to ground after catching a high kick. Curry was initially shown a yellow card by referee Mathieu Raynal but the tackle was put on review.
The yellow was upgraded to red by TMO Marius Jonker, meaning Curry played no more part and his first game back since May because of injury lasted barely three minutes. He briefly put his head in his hands as he sat in the sin-bin, then started to peel off the bandage medics had applied to fix a cut that came from the clash.
Mallia also needed treatment after the tackle opened a big gash over his eye.
It was England's third red card in four games, with Farrell and No. 8 Billy Vunipola both suspended for high shots in World Cup warmups to complicate England's buildup.
But England came alive under the pressure against Argentina, and coach Steve Borthwick was smiling broadly near the end, a rare picture lately after his team lost six out of nine games, including most recently to underdog Fiji, for one of its worst runs of form heading to a World Cup.
Catherine, Princess of Wales, also had a big smile and a wave for the fans from her seat at Stade Velodrome when England's victory was minutes away. She sat next to World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont, a former England captain.
In truth, England was restricted on attack, and didn't show a huge amount of enterprise. It relied heavily on its set-piece and high kicks from Ford to build the pressure on the Pumas and win territory and points-scoring opportunities.
But, if there was a performance Borthwick had envisaged from his team after he called on them to show something to mute the critics — even if it was just guts and defiance — this was it.
“We’ve not been performing, we know, that," Lawes said. “Today, defensively, unbelievable. We’ve got a lot to work on, especially in attack, but a good start to the tournament.
“You can tell with the intensity we came out with, we wanted to shock Argentina, and we did.”
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