England overcame a slow start to defeat Argentina on Saturday in Tokyo, an early red card dashing the South Americans' hopes of victory and paving the way for the 2003 Rugby World Cup champions to take a place in the quarterfinals.

England crossed six times as they ran up the 39-10 win, Argentina's early momentum evaporating when Tomas Lavanini put his shoulder into the head of Owen Farrell to leave referee Nigel Owens little option but to reach for a red card.

Argentina still put up a valiant battle, their scrum particularly impressive as it held firm against England's eight despite having one second-rower watching from the bench.

Argentina coach Mario Ledesma said the sending off was very unfortunate for his team, but he did not disagree with the decision.

"It had a big impact because it was pretty early in the game," he said. "I thought it was fair."

England's lightning pace in the backs, a smart positional kicking game and stellar finishing demonstrated why they are a threat to win the whole thing.

"I liked our psychological adaptation to the game today, that we didn't get seduced by the game," England coach Eddie Jones said.

(Argentina's Tomas Lavanini (R) leaves the pitch after receiving a red card.)

Jones said Argentina's ability to slow the breakdown made it difficult to play the kind of rugby he wanted.

"It is hard to play a lot of phase rugby at the moment, and when you get 15 to 14 (player advantage) the seduction is to want to play a lot of phase rugby, and we probably did that in the first half."

"But we got back to good solid rugby and won the game in good fashion."

The bonus-point win at Tokyo Stadium (Ajinomoto Stadium) means they will be one of the two teams to escape Pool C, with France likely to join them in the last eight.

If England can hold onto first place, they will probably meet Australia in the quarterfinals, with the Wallabies set to finish second in their group.

But nobody from the English camp is looking that far ahead.

"We can't fall into that trap," England flyhalf George Ford said.

(Emiliano Boffelli (L) of Argentina is tackled by Manu Tuilagi of England.)

"We have to take each game as it comes at this World Cup, and that's what we have done so far, three games down now and we have to go to the next one, which is France, who is a challenging opponent."

England's first try would be a sign of things to come, Jonny May's flying feet carrying him around his opposite number after the forwards in red had sucked in the defense.

Farrell stepped up and missed the conversion, one of four kicks he would fluff in the first half, putting the score at 5-3 -- Argentina having opened the scoring with an earlier penalty.

The game's major inflection point came at around 17 minutes when Lavanini was red-carded.

Argentina may consider themselves unlucky as it seemed that Farrell was falling into the tackle, but the decision was consistent with the way the tournament has been officiated.

It was Lavanini's second red card of his test career.

(Benjamin Urdapilleta of Argentina kicks the ball.)

Argentina fans were soon calling for a card of their own when fullback Emiliano Boffelli was tackled while in the air by Manu Tuilagi, but the referee awarded just a penalty, which was missed and the score remained at 5-3.

Ledesma said he had no complaints about that decision, either.

"Sometimes it is a yellow card, sometimes it is not. It is more if you fall on your shoulder or on your neck, and the ref called it just a penalty, so we move on," he said.

It took until the 35th minute, but England finally added five more points thanks to Elliot Daly, and then Ben Youngs pushed the score to 15-3 at halftime.

Youngs, who with his 92nd test cap moved into equal third all-time for England on Saturday, duped the defense with a dummy and ducked across the line.

(Ben Youngs (C) of England makes a break on his way to scoring a try.)

George Ford crashed through three defenders to score in the left corner just four minutes into the second half and Farrell finally got his boot in order, slotting a difficult kick.

To the credit of Los Pumas, they refused to lie down even when facing a seemingly insurmountable task, and when Matias Moroni latched onto a pass from Santiago Carreras to cross in the 70th minute, the largely English-supporting crowd showed its appreciation with a healthy roar.

The English players were not so appreciative, however, with substitute Jack Nowell scoring a converted try in the 73rd minute and the pack rolling a maul across the line to push the final deficit out to 29.