George Ford. Photo: Photosport
First-five George Ford kicked England to a remarkable 27-10 World Cup victory over Argentina on Sunday in a performance full of intensity and tactical guile and all the more astonishing as they played with 14 men from the third minute.
Ford, starting in the place of the suspended Owen Farrell, scored all the points, including a record-equalling three drop goals in a 10-minute first-half blitz that seemed to sap Argentina's spirit.
England were unrecognisable from the team who had lost six of their nine games under coach Steve Borthwick, showing pace and invention in attack and fierce determination in defence.
"The drop-goals are always planned, it is a great weapon for us, especially when the ball is a bit greasy," Ford said.
"We went down a man early on and had to come away from as many points when we had field position. The boys up front were incredible to get us into that field position.
"We have had a bit of a rocky build-up to this World Cup but I think in the last 10 days there has been a different feeling to the place."
The Pool D match had been billed as a massive challenge for England against a Pumas side who beat them at Twickenham last November but, despite the numerical disadvantage after Tom Curry's third-minute red card, it was one-way traffic.
Curry, playing his first game of rugby since May, had barely broken sweat before being shown a yellow card for a head on head collision with Cruz Mallia, which was upgraded to red via the bunker TMO review system. It was the fourth time in the last six games that England had had a man sent off.
Argentina also went down to 14, though only for 10 minutes, as Santiago Carreras was sin-binned for a late hit on Ford but allowed to return.
Four years ago in the corresponding fixture in Japan it was Argentina's Tomas Lavanni who was sent off early, helping England to a comfortable victory, but this time England dealt with the issue more impressively.
Ford showed all his experience and famed generalship as he regularly steered his team into position and landed three drop goals in a 10-minute burst, matching Jonny Wilkinson's England record from the 2003 semi-final victory over France.
Not only were England edging ahead on the scoreboard, they were not being pushed too hard in defence as Argentina could have few complaints about reaching halftime 12-3 down.
A Ford penalty stretched it to 15-3 and England's scrum, with centre Manu Tuilagi packing down on the flank, more than held their own.
England's defence was also unrecognisable from the Fiji defeat last time out, when they missed 27 tackles, as a series of dominant collisions earned another penalty that Ford slotted over.
The England fans in the 61,000 crowd were delirious, as Maro Itoji had his best game for years and scrumhalf Alex Mitchell, in only his second international start, brought a constant darting danger.
England were lifted by their own domination as virtually every decision went their way and another penalty by Ford took them into a 24-3 lead after 66 minutes.
Argentina, who came into the game above England in the world rankings and hoping for a first World Cup win against the 2003 champions after three previous pool defeats, barely mounted an attack until the final minute when Rodrigo Bruni bundled over for the only try of the match.
England look odds-on favourites to top the group and face Japan in Nice next Sunday. Argentina have almost two weeks off before facing Samoa on Sept. 22 in St Etienne.
Wallabies notch welcome win
Australia's Ben Donaldson scored two tries to fire his side to a comfortable 35-15 bonus-point victory over Georgia in their World Cup opener, giving the twice world champions a morale-boosting first win in six tests this year.
Samu Kerevi. Photo: Photosport
Livewire young backs Mark Nawaqanitawase and Jordan Petaia scored early tries to help the Wallabies to a 21-3 halftime lead before fullback Donaldson grabbed a brace to lift the Wallabies out of a second-half lull.
Donaldson, a surprise selection brought into the side primarily for his place-kicking, added 15 points from the tee with three penalties and three conversions, missing just one kick from wide out.
"The boys just executed really for the full 80 minutes and in the end it made me look half decent," said Donaldson.
"I think some of their reserves came in and really brought it to us, we became a bit slow in the second half but I'm proud of the boys."
Georgia, hoping to add another top tier victim to their tally after wins over Italy and Wales in the last 13 months, battled to the bitter end and scored tries through Luka Ivanishvili and Beka Gigashvili.
Although the Stade de France atmosphere was always going to be subdued compared to Friday's opening night party when the hosts beat the All Blacks, Australia contributed by quickly stifling any chance of the upset the majority of the 75,770 crowd wanted.
Centre Petaia wriggled across the line in the second minute and made the break to send winger Nawaqanitawase in for another try seven minutes later before Donaldson took over from the kicking tee to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
The Georgians, pinned into their own half by the Australian kicking, were becoming frustrated and left winger Mirian Modebadze was shown a yellow card just before halftime.
The Lelos came out with renewed purpose after the break and, still down to 14 men, cut the deficit to 21-8 when flyhalf Luka Matkava fired a looping pass out to flanker Ivanishvili on the left wing.
Georgia fullback Davit Niniashvili finally got room to run in the 56th minute but his wild pass backwards found only Taniela Tupou and the Australia prop's neat offload sent Donaldson over for his first try.
Australia were still struggling to find their tempo in the stifling heat but flyhalf Carter Gordon summoned up a superb long pass to allow Donaldson to skip through a big gap and secure the bonus point.
The Georgians kept battling but Nawaqanitawase produced a stunning try-saving tackle to deny winger Akaki Tabutsadze before replacement prop Gigashvili bulldozed his way over from close range in the dying seconds.
Vintage Sexton inspires Ireland
Ireland captain and first-five Johnny Sexton celebrated becoming his country's oldest player by notching 24 points in a rousing 82-8 win over Romania in his side's opening pool match in blazing sunshine.
Bundee Aki. Photo: Photosport
The Irish recovered from the shock concession of an early try to roar back, with Sexton scoring two tries and kicking seven conversions to leave him needing 10 points to overtake Ronan O'Gara as Ireland's top scorer.
"Age is just a number, I'm just delighted to be back," the smiling 38-year-old said in a post-match TV interview.
Standing with his hands on his hips, Sexton appeared to show no signs of a hand injury sustained when touching down for his first try, and he came out for the second half to rack up more points in his quest to overtake O'Gara.
"We're delighted obviously to get a result and to get a points difference like that. We knew it was gonna be a tough game at the start, especially with Romania being very physical and they certainly didn't let us down in that regard," Sexton said.
Sexton was making his first appearance since suffering a groin injury in Ireland's Six Nations clash with England in March, and he was banned for three games after an angry confrontation with officials after the European Champions Cup final in May.
"Until you're in the heat of battle, you can train all you want but until you're in a proper match it doesn't test your properly," Sexton said.
"We know that there's a much tougher task coming on Saturday against Tonga, and then beyond that as well with the other two teams, Scotland and South Africa," he added.
Poor Italy secure bonus-point win
Error-strewn Italy overcame a poor first half in blistering heat to secure a 52-8 victory over minnows Namibia in a lacklustre start to their campaign.
The Italians led 17-8 at the break and later scored a superb 60-metre try through livewire wing Ange Capuozzo. They earned a bonus point as they ran in seven tries in all, taking advantage of the wilting Namibians late in the game.
Namibia's wait for a first World Cup win extends to a record 23 games, though they also scored an excellent try via wing Gerswin Mouton.
Italy were the first to score a try after 11 minutes when Lorenzo Cannone went over after a lineout maul with Namibia already down to 14 men as hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld was sin-binned.
The absence of the experienced hooker proved calamitous at a lineout four minutes later as No.8 Richard Hardwick took the throw-in, launching the ball way over the lineout and into the hands of the Italian backs, allowing Paolo Garbisi to sprint away and score to extend the Italian lead to 17-3.
Namibia, still down a man, scored their try from their first attack with a long pass down the line from flyhalf Tiaan Swanepoel, catching out the Italian cover defence and allowing Mouton to score in the corner.
Swanepoel missed two kicks thereafter but a nine-point deficit at the break offered hope to Namibia's plucky players.
However, Italy were much stronger after the break and the difference in quality off the bench all too evident.
Lock Dino Lamb crashed over at the end of relentless pressure on the Namibia line in the 46th minute before Capuozzo's break from inside his own half brought the crowd to its feet, exchanging passes with Monty Ioane to score in the 55th minute.
Italy's fifth try came after another flamboyant break by the backs, finished off by the forwards pounding away at the Namibia defences before breaching their lines with replacement Faiva going over six minutes from time.
Manuel Zuliani took advantage of a tiring Namibia defence to break two tackles and race down the line for his 78th minute try.
Swanepoel's failure to kick the ball away, and bring on the final whistle, led to a turn over that saw Paolo Odogwu finish the game with another try.
Tommaso Allan kicked over all the conversions and also an early penalty for a 17-point total. Swanepoel hit one penalty for Namibia.
- Reuters