Romania 19 Scotland 60

Scotland recovered from a sluggish start to run in seven tries in an emphatic 60-19 win win over Romania at Hampden Park on Saturday.

Winger Kenny Logan bagged two tries, five conversions and a penalty to complete a personal points tally of 26 points and centre Alan Tait grabbed his 16th international try to set the Five Nations champions on their way.

Tait's opening try was the highlight of a first half Scotland struggled to impose themselves on the East Europeans.

In the second half, centre James McLaren was able to celebrate his debut with a try when he barged in from close range before Scotland grabbed two tries in 60 seconds from Martin Leslie and Logan.

Romanian scrum-half Petre Mitu scored Romaia's only try which he converted himself and also struck four penalties.

The Teams:

Romania:  1 Dragos Niculae, 2 Petre Balan, 3 Constantin Stan, 4 Daniel Chiriac, 5 Catalin Draguceanu, 6 Florin Corodeanu, 7 Erdinci Septar, 8 Alin Petrache (c), 9 Petre Mitu, 10 Roland Vusec, 11 Radu Fugigi, 12 Gabriel Brezoianu, 13 Romeo Gontineac, 14 Cristian Sauan, 15 Mihai Vioreanu
Reserves:  V. Chirita, Cristian Hildan, Marius Iacob, Aurel Popean, Ovidiu Slusariuc, Gheorghe Solomie, Dan Tudosa

Scotland:  1 George Graham, 2 Robbie Russell, 3 Tom Smith, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Martin Leslie, 7 Peter Walton, 8 Gordon Simpson, 9 Gary Armstrong, 10 Duncan Hodge, 11 Shaun Longstaff, 12 James McLaren, 13 Alan Tait, 14 Kenny Logan, 15 Glenn Metcalfe
Reserves:  Dave Hilton, Craig Joiner, Cameron Mather, Bryan Redpath, Doddie Weir
Unused:  Gavin Scott, Craig Chalmers

Attendance:  6807
Referee:  White c

Points Scorers:

Romania
Tries:  Mitu P. 1
Conv:  Mitu P. 1
Pen K.:  Mitu P. 4

Scotland
Tries:  Penalty Try 1, Grimes S.B. 1, Leslie M.D. 1, Logan K.McK. 2, McLaren J.G. 1, Smith T.J. 1, Tait A.V. 1
Conv:  Hodge D.W. 2, Logan K.McK. 5
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 2

Canada 11 England 36

Freed from the six-month scandal that has dogged his rugby career, former captain Lawrence Dallaglio was in outstanding form as England were made to work for their win over Canada at Twickenham.

Dallaglio was awarded the man-of-the-match award as England were made to fight for every point in their final full international warm-up game before the start of the World Cup on October 1.

England ran in a total of five tries with a brace from recalled centre Will Greenwood, wing Dan Luger, full-back Matt Perry and scrum-half Matt Dawson with Johnny Wilkinson hitting four conversions and a penalty.

Canada's points came from a breakaway try by Winston Stanley who beat Dan Luger to touch down in the corner and two penalties from veteran fly-half Gareth Rees.

Canada proved infinitely tougher opposition than the USA the previous weekend, defending bravely and trying to spoil England's attempts at play running rugby at every turn.

England captain Martin Johnson was shown the yellow card for the third time in seven matches after fighting with Canadian flanker Dan Baugh who was also carded for starting the incident punching Richard Hill in the face.

Johnson said he was very disappointed that England failed to convert their overwhelming domination into more points:"It was very frustrating," said the Leicester lock.  "It has brought us back to earth with a bump after the America game but maybe that's what we needed.  "There were dozrens of overlaps and chances but too often the ball went to ground.  But you have to credit the Canadians for their defence even if their tactic were a little borderline," he added.

Dallaglio took the field three days after being fined 15,000 pounds for bringing the game into disrepute following a 10-week investigation into newspaper allegations he took drugs during a British Lions tour.  He was greeted by rapturous applause by the small Twickenham crowd.

"Lawrence was outstanding," said England coach Clive Woodward."With Richard Hill and Neil Back they are a world-class back row."

Woodward was also disappointed by the number of opportunities England missed.  It was encouraging to create so much but annoying to convert so little.  If we had kicked everything we probably would have won by another 20 points but that would have been a waste of time in terms of preparation."

The teams:

Canada:  1 Rod Snow, 2 Pat Dunkley, 3 John Thiel, 4 Mike James, 5 John Tait, 6 Dan Baugh, 7 Ryan Banks, 8 Alan Charron, 9 Half Morgan Williams, 10 Gareth Rees (c), 11 Courtney Smith, 12 Scott Bryan, 13 Dave Lougheed, 14 Winston Stanley, 15 Scott Stewart
Reserves:  Mark Cardinal, John Hutchinson, Duane Major, David Penney, Bobby Ross, Mike Schmid
Unused:  John Graf

England:  1 Graham Rowntree, 2 Phil Greening, 3 Phil Vickery, 4 Danny Grewcock, 5 Martin Johnson (c), 6 Neil Back, 7 Richard Hill, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Matt Dawson, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Austin Healey, 12 Will Greenwood, 13 Jerry Guscott, 14 Dan Luger, 15 Matt Perry
Reserves:  Nick Beal, Mike Catt, Richard Cockerill, Martin Corry, Darren Garforth, Jason Leonard, Tim Stimpson

Referee:  Dume

Points Scorers:

Canada
Tries:  Stanley W.U. 1
Pen K.:  Rees G.L. 2

England
Tries:  Dawson M.J.S. 1, Greenwood W.J.H. 2, Luger D.D. 1, Perry M.B. 1
Conv:  Wilkinson J.P. 4
Pen K.:  Wilkinson J.P. 1

Wales 34 France 23

Welsh fly-half continued to close in on the all-time scoring record of Michael Lynagh as hes scored 29 points in Wales eighth straight win a row over a woeful looking France.

Wales' record point scorer Jenkins struck nine penalties, to equal the world record held jointly by Andrew Mehretns and Keiji Hirose, and a conversion as the powerful Welsh pack dominated their French counterparts in front of 63,000 fans.

Winger Dafyyd James crowned the win with an excellent try in the corner towards the end as Wales made up for a poor first half with an impressive display after the turnaround.

But coach Graham Henry said his team were lucky not to have been punished for their sloppiness and must improve for the opening match of the World Cup against Argentina.

Henry said:  "If we played the same as we did in the second half we could beat Argentina but if we played the way we did in the first half they would put 30 points on us.

"We cannot afford to play like that in the World Cup.  The first half was poor but the second half was pretty good.  I think we should be pleased with our six months.  Winning eight games in a row.  But that's a worrying situation.  You have to look at everything.  If we go on winning nine or 10 matches, that tends to be your Achilles heel."

France, desperate to rediscover their Five Nations form of 1998 with the World Cup under five weeks away, were the better side early on and should have had considerably more than six points on the board by half-time.

Jenkins, who is set to overhaul Michael Lynagh's world record of 911 points in the coming weeks, kept the Welsh in the game with four penalties to give the home side a 12-6 lead going into the second period.

Wales were a different proposition after the break and their relentless pressure forced a string of errors from the French which Jenkins exploited with a further five successful penalties.

Wales were growing in confidence by the 73rd minute, when James raced clear to score in the left corner to seal victory.

The French camp later claimed that the Welsh had been guilty of foul play in an explosive opening to the match.

French fly-half Thomas Castaignede did not say what he believed the Welsh were doing but he put two fingers in the air towards his eyes indicating gouging.

Castaignede said:  "I think that some Welshmen did some bad things to us.  It's difficult for us to play with that."

French backs coach Pierre Villepreux supported his player's claims, adding:  "There was intimidation during the opening of the first half by the Welsh team.At the beginning of the game the Welsh players were doing bad things to us but we will not worry about looking at a video of the match."

The Teams:

Wales:  1 Peter Rogers, 2 Garin Jenkins, 3 Dai Young, 4 Craig Quinnell, 5 Chris Wyatt, 6 Colin Charvis, 7 Brett Sinkinson, 8 Scott Quinnell, 9 Rob Howley (c), 10 Neil Jenkins, 11 Dafydd James, 12 Scott Gibbs, 13 Mark Taylor, 14 Gareth Thomas, 15 Shane Howarth
Reserves:  Mike Voyle
Unused:  David Llewellyn, Allan Bateman, Ben Evans, Jonathan Humphreys, Stephen Jones, Andrew Lewis

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Raphael Ibanez (c), 3 Pieter De Villiers, 4 Abdelatif Benazzi, 5 Fabien Pelous, 6 Marc Lievremont, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Thomas Lievremont, 9 Stephane Castaignede, 10 Thomas Castaignede, 11 Ugo Mola, 12 Richard Dourthe, 13 Stephane Glas, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Xavier Garbajosa
Reserves:  David Auradou, Marc Dal Maso, Christophe Lamaison, Lionel Mallier, Emile Ntamack, Cedric Soulette, Pierre Mignoni

Referee:  Honiss p.

Points Scorers:

Wales
Tries:  James D.R. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 1
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 9

France
Tries:  Mallier L. 1, Mignoni P. 1
Conv:  Dourthe R. 1, Lamaison C. 1
Pen K.:  Dourthe R. 2, Lamaison C. 1

Argentina 24 Ireland 32

Ireland brought a confident Argentina back down to earth after running in four tries and surviving a late fightback to hold on for a 32-24 win at Lansdowne Road.

The South Americans, in confident mood after beating Scotland the weekend before and being unbeaten on their UK tour so far, trailed 32-3 at one point before they rallied in the final quarter as Ireland eased the pressure.

Hooker Keith Wood scored the first try of the game when he went over from short range before winger Matt Mostyn scored a hat-trick of tries to leave the Pumas in disarray.

Stand-off David Humphreys missed all four conversions but struck four penalties to add to the rout.

Ireland, showing three changes to the side which narrowly lost the second Test to Australia in Perth in June, relaxed towards the end but never looked in danger of seeing their lead overhauled.

Argentina scrum-half Agustin Pichot, a 47th minute replacement for Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, scored two tries while Martin Scelzo scored another.  Stand-off Gonzalo Quesada converted all three tries and a penalty.

The Teams:

Argentina:  1 Roberto Grau, 2 Agustin Canalda, 3 Mauricio Reggiardo, 4 Alejandro Allub, 5 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Gonzalo Longo Elia, 7 Santiago Phelan, 8 Lucas Ostiglia, 9 Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, 10 Gonzalo Quesada, 11 Diego Albanese, 12 Lisandro Arbizu (c), 13 Eduardo Simone, 14 Octavio Bartolucci, 15 Manuel Contepomi
Reserves:  Fernando Diaz Alberdi, Rolando Martin, Agustin Pichot, Martin Scelzo
Unused:  Ignacio Corletto, Felipe Contepomi, Raul Perez

Ireland:  1 Peter Clohessy, 2 Keith Wood, 3 Paul Wallace, 4 Jeremy Davidson, 5 Paddy Johns, 6 Trevor Brennan, 7 Andy Ward, 8 Dion O'Cuinneagain (c), 9 Tom Tierney, 10 David Humphreys, 11 Matt Mostyn, 12 Brian O'Driscoll, 13 Kevin Maggs, 14 Justin Bishop, 15 Conor O'Shea
Reserves:  Eric Elwood, Eric Miller, Mike Mullins, Malcolm O'Kelly, Justin Fitzpatrick
Unused:  Ross Nesdale, Brian O'Meara

Attendance:  15000
Referee:  Bevan

Points Scorers:

Argentina
Tries:  Pichot A. 2, Scelzo M. 1
Conv:  Quesada G. 3
Pen K.:  Quesada G. 1

Ireland
Tries:  Mostyn M. 3, Wood K.G.M. 1
Pen K.:  Humphreys D.G. 4

Australia 28 New Zealand 7

Australia put their World Cup hopes firmly back on track with an efficient 28-7 win over the dreaded New Zealand All Blacks in front of a world record crowd of 107,042 in the Stadium Australia.

The crowd eclipsed the 104,000 which saw Scotland play Wales at Murrayfield in 1975 and Australia's previous highest rugby crowd was 90,119 who saw the Bledisloe Test in 1997 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

A Wallaby pack revamped after their 10-9 defeat to South Africa, secured victory made possible by full-back Matthew Burke's seven penalties.  Burke also converted lock Mark Connors' try right on half-time for a win which left the All Blacks asking themselves a lot of qestions.

However, New Zealand had already secured the Tri Nations tournament with two wins over South Africa and a 34-15 defeat of the Wallabies at Auckland earlier in the month.  New Zealand fly-half Andrew Mehrtens scored a sensational try he converted for the All Blacks who failed to win back the Bledisloe Cup they lost to the Wallabies last year.

"It was a huge wake-up call," said New Zealand coach John Hart afterwards.  "If it's going to happen it's better it happens now rather than at the World Cup.  There were no positives.  We were outpassioned by a very good team who dominated the advantage line and they got more players to the breakdown."

"The boys showed a lot of courage, a lot of determination," said Australia captain David Wilson who added he was particularly pleased with the pack.

Australia coach Rod Macqueen said New Zealand were still the team to beat at the World Cup: "It was important for us to perform well today.  It wasn't a pretty exhibition but we showed passion and pride.  But New Zealand will be very, very competitive and the team to beat in the World Cup."

Desperate defending by Australia stopped three almost certain All Black tries in the first-half but even the introduction of Jonah Lomu at half-time could not ignite a strangely error-prone New Zealand side as the rain crashed down after the interval.

Burke kicked two penalties before Mehrtens sold a dummy and accelerated between left wing Jason Little and scrum-half George Gregan in a 50-metre dash for the line.  His route was finally cleared when Little ran into Burke as the full-back came over to cover.

Little, brought in for Joe Roff after the 10-9 defeat to South Africa, made amends when he intercepted a Jeff Wilson pass with two All Blacks on the overlap.

Then Tim Horan, back at inside centre after three matches at fly-half, got back across to cut out a high-speed passing move down the left between right wing Christian Cullen and left wing Tana Umaga.

Nathan Grey next stopped Umaga after six phases of All Black play had threatened to rip the heart out of the Wallaby defence.

Burke added three more penalties as Scottish referee Jim Fleming came down hard on All Black infringments in the loose before the revamped Wallaby scrum won an enormous push on the All Black line and Connors squirmed over for a deserved try.

New Zealand brought on Lomu for inside centre Daryl Gibson at half-time.  Umaga went to the right and Cullen went to centre.  And Andrew Blowers replaced Dylan Mika at blindside flanker.

But the Olympic stadium was hit by a heavy shower making attackig rugby all but impossible and a bedraggled All Black side saw Burke kick his seventh penalty on 80 minutes.

The teams:

Australia:  1 Andrew Blades, 2 Phil Kearns, 3 Richard Harry, 4 Mark Connors, 5 David Giffin, 6 Matt Cockbain, 7 David Wilson (c), 8 Toutai Kefu, 9 George Gregan, 10 Rod Kafer, 11 Jason Little, 12 Dan Herbert, 13 Tim Horan, 14 Ben Tune, 15 Matthew Burke
Reserves:  Owen Finegan, Michael Foley, Nathan Grey, Patricio Noriega, Joe Roff, Tiaan Strauss, Chris Whitaker

New Zealand:  1 Carl Hoeft, 2 Anton Oliver, 3 Kees Meeuws, 4 Robin Brooke, 5 Norm Maxwell, 6 Josh Kronfeld, 7 Dylan Mika, 8 Taine Randell (c), 9 Justin Marshall, 10 Andrew Mehrtens, 11 Christian Cullen, 12 Daryl Gibson, 13 Alama Ieremia, 14 Tana Umaga, 15 Jeff Wilson
Reserves:  Andrew Blowers, Tony Brown, Craig Dowd, Byron Kelleher, Jonah Lomu, Royce Willis
Unused:  Mark Hammett

Attendance:  107042
Referee:  Fleming

Points Scorers:

Australia
Tries:  Connors M. 1
Conv:  Burke M.C. 1
Pen K.:  Burke M.C. 7

New Zealand
Tries:  Mehrtens A.P. 1
Conv:  Mehrtens A.P. 1

United States 8 England 106

England ruthlessly exposed the USA's shortcomings in their World Cup warm-up at Twickenham, crushing the tourists 106-8 for their biggest win at the venue and their second biggest in their history.

Veteran centre Jeremy Guscott led the way with four scores as England rapidly extended their 31-8 half-time lead with Jonny Wilkinson hitting 13 conversions.

The USA side found themselves totally outclassed as England found gaps across the field, Guscott galloping in from long-range for all four of his scores, while full-back Matt Perry, wing Dan Luger and flanker Neil Back each grabbed a brace of scores in front of a desperately low Twickenham crowd of around 15,000.

The game also marked the return of former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio although he has still to face a RFU disciplinary to answer a disrepute charge.

England coach Clive Woodward had wanted a "full-on" game for his players as they began the final six-week stage of their World Cup preparations.

The opposition were unable to give them a real test, however, despite going 3-0 ahead through a penalty from scrum-half Kevin Dalzell before England opened their account in the 16th minute through flanker Richard Hill.

After that, the floodgates opened wide as England piled up the points as the Americans tried unsuccessfully to limit the damage, the only respite being the visitors' sole try in the 33rd-minute from prop George Sucher.  Fittingly it was Guscott who brought up England's first century at Twickenham, sprinting clear from inside his own half, and Wilkinson converted with the game's final kick.

After sizing up the opposition in the first period, Perry and Guscott continued the tries spree before skipper Johnson recorded only his second touchdown in England colours.

The only setback for England was a knee injury sustained by Perry which forced him off on the hour, yet England were now into an irresistible rhythm and further tries followed from Guscott, Back, Greening, Luger, de Glanville and two more via the imperious Guscott.

USA coach Jack Clark said after the game:  "I feel like we were hit with a lethal cocktail:  one part world-class team, one part perfect form, and one part something to prove."

The Teams:

United States:  1 Ray Lehner, 2 Tom Billups, 3 George Sucher, 4 Luke Gross, 5 Alec Parker, 6 Dave Hodges, 7 Tasi Mo'unga, 8 Dan Lyle (c), 9 Kevin Dalzell, 10 David Niu, 11 Vaea Anitoni, 12 Juan Grobler, 13 Tomasi Takau, 14 Tini Saulala, 15 Kurt Shuman
Reserves:  Kirk Khasigian, Marc L'Huillier, Rob Lumkong, Chris Morrow, Shaun Paga, Mark Williams
Unused:  Britt Howard

England:  1 Graham Rowntree, 2 Phil Greening, 3 Phil Vickery, 4 Danny Grewcock, 5 Martin Johnson (c), 6 Neil Back, 7 Richard Hill, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Matt Dawson, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Austin Healey, 12 Phil De Glanville, 13 Jerry Guscott, 14 Dan Luger, 15 Matt Perry
Reserves:  Neil McCarthy, Will Green, Tim Rodber, Tim Stimpson, Trevor Woodman
Unused:  Mike Catt, Paul Grayson

Referee:  Paul Honiss (NZ)

Points Scorers:

United States
Tries:  Sucher G. 1
Pen K.:  Dalzell K. 1

England
Tries:  Back N.A. 2, Dawson M.J.S. 1, De Glanville P.R. 1, Greening P.B.T. 1, Guscott J.C. 4, Hill R.A. 1, Johnson M.O. 1, Luger D.D. 2, Perry M.B. 2, Penalty Try 1
Conv:  Wilkinson J.P. 13

Canada 19 Wales 33

Italy returned to winning ways with a comfortable 49-17 win over Uruguay in the first match of the four-team tournament in Aquila.

The Italians, playing under new coach Massimo Mascioletti for the first time, scored seven tries in all with two from veteran winger Paolo Vaccari who was making his long-awaited return from injury.

However, in a tight first-half Uruguay kept the score close with two tries from captain Diego Ormaechea although in the second half the Azzurri raced away with the game.

Further tries from former Wallaby Matt Pini, Stefano Saviozzi, Christian Stoicca and two from Fabio Roselli secured Italy's first win in seven games.

The teams:

Canada:  1 Richard Bice, 2 Mark Cardinal, 3 Rod Snow, 4 Mike James, 5 John Tait, 6 Dan Baugh, 7 John Hutchinson, 8 Alan Charron, 9 Morgan Williams, 10 Gareth Rees (c), 11 Courtney Smith, 12 Scott Bryan, 13 Dave Lougheed, 14 Winston Stanley, 15 Scott Stewart
Reserves:  Ryan Banks, Bobby Ross, Mike Schmid, John Thiel
Unused:  Dale Burleigh, Julian Loveday, Brian McCarthy

Wales:  1 Ben Evans, 2 Jonathan Humphreys, 3 Peter Rogers, 4 Andrew Moore, 5 Craig Quinnell, 6 Geraint Lewis, 7 Martyn Williams, 8 Scott Quinnell, 9 Rob Howley (c), 10 Neil Jenkins, 11 Nick Walne, 12 Leigh Davies, 13 Scott Gibbs, 14 Allan Bateman, 15 Shane Howarth
Reserves:  Stephen Jones, Andrew Lewis, Gareth Llewellyn, Chris Wyatt, Dai Young
Unused:  David Llewellyn, Neil Boobyer

Attendance:  50000
Referee:  Mchugh d.

Points Scorers:

Canada
Tries:  Lougheed D.C. 1
Conv:  Rees G.L. 1
Pen K.:  Rees G.L. 3
Drop G.:  Rees G.L. 1

Wales
Tries:  Walne N.J. 1, Jenkins N.R. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 1
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 7