England's Tom Curry red carded 2 minutes into World Cup Pool D opener

England flanker Tom Curry was sensationally red-carded just two minutes into his side’s Rugby World Cup Pool D opener against Argentina in Marseille.

Curry appeared to make head contact with Juan Cruz Mallia as the Puma’s fullback collected a high ball just inside the Argentinian half of the Stade Velodrome.

Referee Mathieu Raynal sent Curry off on a yellow with the incident sent for a ‘Bunker’ review. It was duly upgraded to a red, with the review having deemed it met the red card threshold.

Just six minutes later it was Los Pumas who found themselves in hot water when Santiago Carreras was yellow carded for a late challenge on George Ford. He however returned to the field following his sin binning, which was also sent to the TMO bunker.

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England had returned to Marseille for the first time since their Rugby World Cup 2007 quarter-final victory against Australia.

Argentina ended a 10-game losing streak against England in their last meeting, with their first victory since 2009 in Salta. They have never won consecutive tests in this fixture, with all four previous wins since 1981 followed by a loss the next game.

Four of Los Pumas’ five victories against England have been narrow, by seven points or fewer. Their only double-figure winning margin came in 1997, winning 33-13 in Buenos Aires.

England have led at half-time in 17 of their previous 25 meetings, converting 14 of these leads into victories. Argentina have only come back to win when trailing at the break three times against England, in 1990 in Buenos Aires, and 2006 and 2022 at Twickenham.