Tom Curry’s return lasted barely three minutes as he was sent off for a head-on-head collision against Argentina in a terrible start to England’s World Cup campaign.

Curry was parachuted straight into the starting XV by Steve Borthwick despite missing every single game since he took over from Eddie Jones due to injury. The Sale Sharks flanker sat out the Six Nations with hamstring issues and was unavailable for all four Rugby World Cup warm-ups with an ankle complaint. However, Kevin Sinfield talked up his importance to the defence during the week and Borthwick instilled him at No 7 for England’s opener in Marseille.

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Watch Curry red card

Curry’s attempt to tackle Argentina full-back Juan Cruz Mallía after he caught a kick saw his head make contact with his opponent’s. Mallía was left with blood all over his face after suffering a nasty cut in the collision and had to make way for a blood sub.

Referee Mathieu Raynal decided Curry’s offence met the yellow card threshold and sent the 25-year-old back-row to the sin bin with the TMO Bunker left to determine whether it was worth upgrading to a red.

Curry was deemed to have not lowered his tackle height and with a high degree of danger he now has an unwanted piece of history after becoming the first England player ever to be sent off at a Rugby World Cup in his first game since the Premiership final at the end of May.

Argentina were soon also reduced to 14 men after fly-half Santiago Carreras’s clumsy charge down attempt saw him clatter into George Ford after nine minutes. He received a yellow card but unlike Curry it was not upgraded to red and returned after 19 minutes, with the score at 3-3, much to the dismay of the many England fans inside the Stade Velodrome.

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