England overcame a stubborn Argentina side while Australia cruised to a comfortable victory over Georgia in their opening matches of the Rugby World Cup.

England had recorded just four wins in 13 matches heading into the clash in Marseille and Argentina had stunned them in November.

It started badly for the 2003 champions after Tom Curry was red-carded for a clumsy clash of heads with Argentine full-back Juan Cruz Mallia in just the third minute, becoming the first England player in history to be sent off at a World Cup.

But Ford stepped up to take a scrappy game by the scruff of the neck, kicking every single one of England’s points, including three drop-goals and six penalties, in a 27-10 victory to lift the pre-tournament tension in the Red Rose camp.

Ford is standing in for Owen Farrell, who is serving a ban for a dangerous tackle that rules him out of this game and the next against Japan, but on this evidence Farrell will have a fight on his hands to get the No 10 jersey back.

“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. It is only game one and we will look to build next week,” Ford told ITV.

England coach Steve Borthwick said: “There was a sense I had from the players they had been written off a bit too early. They are a quality group that are going to keep on improving and moving forward.”

Organisers said in a statement: “We are working with all stakeholders to establish the facts and implement measures to prevent such delays for the remaining Rugby World Cup 2023 matches at the venue.”

Ireland is the best team in the world, and they were able to pick Sexton, who is often their inspiration, for the first time after he had been out for six months with an injury. They played Romania in the first match of Pool B.

Gabriel Rupanu scored Romania’s first try when Sexton’s kick went astray, but Ireland crushed Romania with 12 tries in return to win 82-8 in Bordeaux.

Sexton scored 24 points, including two tries, to set a new record for Ireland in the World Cup.

“I’m delighted just to get some minutes under my belt,” Sexton said.

“We know there’s a much tougher task coming on Saturday against Tonga.”

Like England, Australia had a rough time getting ready for the tournament, but a 35-15 win over Georgia gave coach Eddie Jones his first win in six games.

Fullback Ben Donaldson scored 25 points in only his fourth Test. This made former England and Japan coach Jones say that the two-time champions were off to a “perfect” start.

“World Cups are about taking each step,” Jones said.

“If we were to plan a perfect World Cup preparation, we said at the end of the round one we want to sit there on five points and that’s what we’ve got.”

In the other game on day two of the seven-week tournament, which is being held in France, Italy beat Namibia 52-8.