England ran in six tries against the 14 men of Argentina to make it three bonus-point wins from three and guarantee themselves a place in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals |
England marched into the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup with a 39-10 Pool C victory over an Argentina team reduced to 14 men for more than an hour after Tomas Lavanini was shown a red card on Saturday.
The match turned in the 17th minute when, with England 5-3 ahead after a Jonny May try, the Pumas lock crashed his shoulder into the jaw of England captain Owen Farrell and referee Nigel Owens had little choice but to send him from the pitch.
The 2003 champions initially struggled to make their numerical superiority pay but tries from Elliot Daly, Ben Youngs, George Ford, Jack Nowell and Luke Cowan-Dickie gave England a 10th successive win over Argentina and a bonus point.
Argentina, semi-finalists in two of the last three tournaments, scored a late consolation try through winger Matias Moroni but now need France to slip up against Tonga on Sunday to have any chance of going through to the knockout stage.