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Flyhalf George Ford kicked all the points to lead 14-man England to a 27-10 victory over Argentina in their Rugby World Cup Pool D opener in Marseille, a performance full of intensity and guile from coach Steve Borthwick’s side.
Ford, in for suspended captain Owen Farrell, equalled the England record of three drop-goals in a World Cup game set 20 years ago in Australia by Jonny Wilkinson and gave a masterclass in kicking off the tee.
Such a comprehensive victory had looked unlikely when England lost flanker Tom Curry, playing his first game since May, three minutes into the game when he was given a yellow card, upgraded to a red on bunker review, following a dangerous tackle on Argentina fullback Juan Cruz Mallia.
The South American side were unable to counter England’s forward power, even with a man advantage, though, and were forced into numerous errors by the defensive organisation of their opponents, who put in comfortably their best performance under Borthwick.
It was a performance of great grit from England, who had four wins in their last 13 Tests, a win percentage of 33% under Borthwick, a 50-point loss to France recently and a first loss in their history to Fiji two weeks ago.
“Obviously a really good performance, you saw today how much it meant to us,” said England captain Courtney Lawes.
“We’ve not been performing, we know that, but today defensively unbelievable. Still plenty to work on, especially in attack but a good start to the tournament.”
On the red card, he added: “It’s obviously very unlucky that Cuzza [Tom Curry] got the red early on but I think you could tell the intensity we came out with: we wanted to shock Argentina, we knew we could and that just continued throughout the game.
“Not a great start but it didn’t matter. We had a great training week, we were just prepared for everything. (It was) pretty much worst-case scenario and we were ready for it and we dug in. We dug in for Cuzza and we dug in for each other.”
There were issues with crowd control before the game with fans stuck in a crush outside.
“We are aware of delays experienced by fans entering Stade de Marseille for the Rugby World Cup 2023 Pool D match between England and Argentina this evening,” said World Rugby in a statement.
“While fans were able to take their seats, fan experience is paramount, and we are working with all stakeholders to establish the facts and implement measures to prevent such delays for the remaining Rugby World Cup 2023 matches at the venue.”
© AAP
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