First five George Ford kicked England to a remarkable 27-10 World Cup victory over Argentina on Saturday 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.
FAMED GENERALSHIP
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.
