England vs Argentina LIVE Rugby World Cup: George Ford turns on masterclass as Steve Borthwick’s men run riot to lead 24-3 after Tom Curry sending off

67′ – We’re running out of ways to describe Ford approaching a rugby ball, whopping his boot through it, and standing to admire the fruits of his labour as he once more sends the ball flying between the posts.

But we don’t want him to stop.

Ford penalty conversion, 24-3.

66′ – There’s a big ovation for captain Lawes who has performed brilliantly tonight. He has been an absolute fortress. Northampton team-mate Ludlam is on.

63′ – Eduardo Bello replaces Thomas Gallo for and Matias Moroni comes in for Santiago Carreras.

62′ – Commiserations to Elliot Daly who had the unenviable task of trying to inherit Ford’s mantle as supreme penalty master of this game.

His first attempt with the dead ball meanders wide and never looked like going in. 21-3 it remains.

It’s bordering on the ridiculous now.

59′ – Wow. Once more. Perfect kicking from Ford.

Danny Care is on for Mitchell and he must be coming on to one of the best England games in a long time. Enjoy it, Danny.

And guess who’s on it….

Mail sport’s Chrisa Foy writes: ‘Now Maro Itoje is back – the real Maro Itoje; the world-class one. Just a fleeting glimpse for now, but the penalty he won at a breakdown was a showcase of one of his attributes when he is in vintage form, which he has not been for a long time. It followed some swarming, aggressive English defence when Itoje was repeatedly involved and Manu Tuilagi produced the best shot of the night.’

55′ – Ford converts again! Still a long way to go but everything is going right here.

Joe Marler is now on for Ellis Genge.

54′ – Manu Tuilagi has come steaming in with an excellent and forthright challenge. A few moments later, Maro Itoje beams as the referee awards off feet and England have a penalty, which he won.

48′ – We know what Argentina are capable of, but they’re not shwoing it tonight and silly mistakes are making their hopes turn to dust so far.

Seven handling errors from Michael Cheika’s side compared to England’s two. On the world stage, the finest of margins are going to win games and you can’t be giving the ball up so easily.

46′ – George Ford has hit 15 points for the night as he converts another penalty to rub salt in the wounds of Argentina.

Steve Borthwick’s men have started this half in the vein they left off and that’s exactly what they need to do. A 12-point lead is more comfortable but keeping the pressure on is a good idea.

45′ – Lawes has been immense leading England tonight and gets on the end of a deflected kick from Earl.

42′ – Ben Earl breaks away from the first scrum after the break and England are looking to make progress up the pitch. Carreras goes over the top of Jonny May in the air after a kick up and it’s not a clea catch.

Despite the euphoria suddenly enveloping England, there will be one man coming away from the first half feeling rather hard done by: Tom Curry.

His collision with Juan Cruz Mallia has inevitably sparked debate but there’s a certainly a valid argument to say he should not have been dismissed.

As pictured, it left Mallia worse for wear. And that’s how Argentina are looking as a whole after a stellar performance from England, who have really grown into the game.

‘What a half from England. They go off to an ovation, which is richly deserved. They not only showed character in adversity; they were canny too. George Ford has had this game in the palm of his hand so far – or on the top of his right boot to be more accurate. The second drop goal was astonishing. Courtney Lawes has been immense too and all the players are rising to this big occasion. How refreshing to witness such a positive English performance after a summer of setbacks and frustrations.’

Half-time is upon us and it’s hard not to be speechless at what we’ve just seen.

George Ford has stolen the show. England close out the half winning the scrum and looked well on top here.

39′ – Argentina have not made any use of the extra man here. They’re hardly getting up the pitch anymore after a decent start.

37′ – Can you believe what we’re seeing here?

After going a man down, England have transformed into a super combative and flair-filled side. And George Ford is at the centre of it all.

Yet another drop goal for Ford, his third of the night and a joint-English record.

‘What England have already succeeded in doing here is getting their fans right behind them with this spirited effort in adversity. The noise when George Ford just landed a second drop goal – from halfway – was deafening. England have Argentina rattled, ever since the turnover penalty won by Courtney Lawes in front of his own posts. At the moment, this is heroic.’

Chris Foy is one of our correspondents in the Stade Velodrome tonight.

31′ – again he’s at it! The man loves a drop goal, and so do England Ford hits it over from 50 metres out and puts England 9-3 ahead.

28′ – against expectations, England take the lead with a drop goal from Ford!

25′ – Mitchell tries a kick but once again it doesn’t have the accuracy and Argentina reclaim the ball unchallenged. England are kicking a lot tonight, but not to much avail.

24′ – Argentina get going again but England defend well and get their hands on the ball. Big moment from Courtney Lawes there.

23′ There’s a potential knock-on from Argentina’s Thomas Gallo after they came furiously close to scoring a try. It’s under review.

22′ – Argentina win a turnover and kick into the corner, right on England’s line. This is a threat.

‘What a chaotic start to this match and now England find themselves in a hole after Curry’s red card. But this sort of scenario has tended to bring the best out of them in the last couple of years so they need to resurrect that defiant streak here. They have certainly found a slight semblance of attacking rhythm in the last few minutes, with 14 men.’

20′ – Ford probed with a kick but it’s too long and Argentina catch.

Play is stopped as Carreras comes back on and his card has not been upgraded.

19′ – England have shown a bit of pace and industry in attack there and made some inroads into Argentina. Ben Earl kicks lightly forward for a chase but the attack breaks down.

15′ – with the ball on the half-way line and Argentina one man down on the backs with Carreras under card review, there is a lot of space here for England to exploit.

And… it results in a free-kick for Argentina.

12′ – having lost their openside flanker in Tom Curry, England will have to adapt fast as they find themselves on the painful end of a dismissal.

That’s the first red card at the World Cup.

Tom Curry has bene dismissed ten minutes in after he was upgraded to a red card.

Ford converts his penalty with both teams currently down to 14.

9′ – Santiago Carreras slammed into George Ford and the foul play review officer is busy. That looked awful.

He’s been given a yellow but it could be upgraded.

7′ – England gave away another penalty – you can’t do that against Boffelli as he’s so good over the ball – but in a rare moment of grace he spares England’s blushes with a miss.

Emiliano Boffelli scores a penalty and after a bright start for England. they’re down 3-0.

Juan Cruz Mallia has received treatment after a head collisiion between him and Tom Curry.

There’s a card review for Curry. He’s been given a yellow but it could be upgraded to a red.

England capitalise on a misplaced chip over from Argentina and Freddie Steward kicks upfield to try and get Steve Borthwick’s men on the front foot.

Argentina haven’t done much so far and it has been a solid start from England with the Pumas forced to kick to try and break through.

Argentina get us going as chants ring around the Stade Velodrome.

Now it’s time for God Save the King.

The players are out, the national anthems are coming on, and the excitement is palpable.

It’s a choir rendition of Argentina’s national anthem to start us off.

Finally we can bring you some photos of what we’re all hoping for this tournament – England fans having a great time.

Here you can see some of our committed travellers mingling with rival supporters and enjoying drinks.

One can only hope the others stuck outside get in with minimal trouble from here on out.

Fans have been telling Chris Foy of their experiences outside the stadium in the build-up to England vs Argentina.

One England fan who had to endure a long, fraught battle to enter the stadium said: ‘Just got to our seats. It was an abject disaster. No signage. No people to direct – 67,000 people funnelled through a single staircase. Elbows everywhere. And then when you get inside, the sections are poorly labelled. We found ours by accident.’

Argentina head coach Michael Cheika has given his thoughts ahead of the game. Cheika has had a varied career across both codes of rugby and now he’s back at the World Cup with a different team.

‘I feel extremely connected to this bunch of guys, he said, speaking of his adaptation into the Pumas community. ‘I feel part of the family. It’s great to be here with them.’

Fans and journalists outside the ground are sending in their images and footage as they struggle to make progress into the ground.

Here’s a video from another Twitter user.

Chris Foy has written: ‘Hope they sort this mess out soon. Hordes of fans trying to enter the stadium and the crush is getting worse. Just saw one guy who had made it through the gates punching the air in relief.’

‘Serious problems outside the stadium here with thousands of fans stuck in big crushes to come through security checks at the gates. Judging by the current, chaotic scenes, not everyone will make it inside in time for kick-off in 25 minutes. No word yet about the start of the game being pushed back though.’

Here’s another look at the chaos outside the stadium.

If you want more of our coverage of the Rugby World Cup, you can check out Nik Simon and Kevin Quigley’s series ‘Croqued’, a fun and informative take on their travels covering this tournament in France, packed with rugby chat and insight.

As you can see, one of the entrances to the Stade Velodrome is packed with just half an hour to go to kick-off.

Courtney Lawes has spoken about the honour of captaining England as he leads them out in what is his fourth World Cup campaign.

‘It’s huge for me, a big honour. I just want to do my best for the boys and the people at home supporting us. It’s a really exciting weekend. We’ve had a really good training week and we’re looking forward to getting stuck in.

We have to be defensively and physically sound. We have to match [Argentina] up front first and foremost. And we have a game plan put in place which will suit our strengths and give us plenty of options.

There’s definitely frustration. We feel it as much as anybody. We’re in the thick of it. We’re doing everything we can to make sure come this weekend we are firing on all cylinders.’

Mail Sport columnist and former World Cup winner Sir Clive Woodward has just told ITV Sport: ‘I think it’d be an upset if we win tonight.’

Argentina present a unique challenge as one of the most fiery teams in rugby and won at Twickenham last year 30-29. don’t take them lightly.

Maro Itoje has issued some defiant words ahead of tonight’s clash.

Steve Borthwick has lost six of his first nine games in charge of England but Itoje, who starts in the second row tonight, insists that England know their quality.

‘We know who we are, we know the type of players we have, we know the quality of coaches we have,’ he said.

‘We haven’t played as well as we can, but we know the potential of this group, you know the attitude of the players and the coaches and it can only fill you with confidence.

‘We want to be part of something special and that starts this weekend.

‘We’ve seen how England get behind their national teams and we want to produce rugby that will get the country behind us.’

Finally they’re on the turf. The World Cup opener for England is less than an hour away! Four years we’ve waited, and now you can almost taste it.

Now for a look at Argentina’s starting XV for this clash.

Julian Montoya is the headline name and captain in the front row, also skippering Leicester Tigers. He’s powerful and has been named in the Gallagher Premiership team of the season twice in a row.

Marcos Kremer is back after a ban. He turns out for Clermont in the club season and has 57 Argentina caps to his name.

It’s no secret that England World Cup build-up has been rocked by a pile-on of issues. Once a slick operation, England go into this World Cup with pessimistic talk surrounding them.

There have been bans, injuries, a first-ever loss to Fiji, and so much more. For a team that reached the final under Eddie Jones in 2019, anything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong, writes Kieran Lynch.

Check out Mail Sport’s Rugby page elsewhere on our website to read his report.

This is what the centre of operations ahead of kick-off for each team tonight.

In the middle image, you can see the jerseys of Manu Tuilagi, who starts at inside centre; George Ford, who is at fly-half; and Alex Mitchell at No 6.

England have a good record against Argentina, having won 19 of 25 encounters, but try telling these South American fans that the history books matter.

They’ve turned out in full force and Argentine regalia for this one. One thing is for sure: whatever happens on the field, there is going to be a firecracker of an atmosphere in the Stade Velodrome tonight.

Steve Borthwick has the hopes of a nation resting on his shoulders and will know that his team selection will set the tone for the rest of the tournament.

Alex Mitchell is handed a surprise start at No 9 after a whirlwind few weeks. The Northampton Saints man wasn’t even included in Borthwick’s initial squad for the tournament, but the withdrawal of Jack Van Poortvliet led to his inclusion and now he starts ahead of Danny Care and Ben Youngs for his seventh cap.

Courtney Lawes captains the team from No 6 in the absence of Owen Farrell, having picked up his 100th cap against Fiji.

Jonny May is also on the wing – he also wasn’t included in the original 33-man squad.

Here is England’s line-up for their World Cup opener.

Good evening and welcome to Mail Sport’s live blog as England commence their Rugby World Cup campaign against Argentina.

The Stade Velodrome in Marseille, an absolute cauldron of a venue, will play host to tonight’s occasion as Steve Borthwick’s men look to put their recent woes behind them.

Kick-off is at 8pm and here at Mail Sport we’ll be bringing you all the build-up, live action, and reaction.