Fiji win in Romania

Fiji visited Romania for the first time on Saturday and scored a 29-18 at Stadionul Arcul de Triumf in Bucharest.

The match was played in chilly 11 degrees in the Romanian capital.  The sides have only ever met once before, when Romania won 17-15 in Brive at the Rugby World Cup in 1991

With neither side at full strength due to club commitments with the Fijians missing the services of Deacon Manu, Nicky Little, Seremaia Bai and Mosese Rauluni.

Fiji outscored their hosts four tries to two with teenage fly-half Josh Mataves adding three conversions and a penalty.

The hosts moved into an 8-0 lead thanks to a penalty from full-back Florin Vlaicu and a try from Ovidiu Tonita.

Fiji replied with a try from Vereniki Goneva just before half time.

Vlaicu landed a second penalty to put Romania ahead 11-7 at the break.

The second half belonged to Fiji however as two fantastic counter attacks gave them a 29-11 lead.

Romania fought back as prop Bogdan Balan scored a try despite flank Stelian Burcea being sent to the sin bin for a late tackle

The result caps a bad year for Romania who are yet to qualify for the World Cup.  Their hopes of doing so rest with success in the European Nations Cup.

Scorers:

For Fiji:
Tries:  Goneva, Naikadawa, Nagusa, Ratu
Cons:  Matavesi 3
Pen:  Matavesi

For Romania:
Tries:  Tonita, Balan
Con:  Dumbrava
Pens:  Vlaicu 2

Fiji:  15 Norman Ligairi, 14 Timoci Nagusa, 13 Vereniki Goneva, 12 Gabiriele Lovobalavu, 11 Semi Tadulala, 10 Josh Matavesi, 9 Waisale Vatuvoka, 8 Asaeli Boko, 7 Jimilai Naikadawa, 6 Samu Bola, 5 Leone Nakarawa, 4 Apolosi Satala (captain), Capt, 3 Viliame Seuseu, 2 Vereniki Sauturaga, 1 Aisake Tarogi
Replacements:  16 Isireli Ledua, 17 Alefoso Yalayalatabua, 18 Graham Dewes, 19 Viliame Veikoso, 20 Kelemedi Bola, 21 Jonetani Ratu, 22 Nasoni Roko

Romania:  15 Florin Vlaicu, 14 Stefan Ciuntu, 13 Ionut Dimofte, 12 Dan Dumitru, 11 Catalin Nicolae, 10 Iulian Dumitras, 9 Lucian Sirbu, 8 Ovidiu Tonita, 7 Vasile Rus, 6 Stelian Burcea, 5 Augustin Petrichei, 4 Sorin Socol (captain), 3 Paulica Ion, 2 Andrei Radoi, 1 Bogdan Balan
Replacements:  16 Petrisor Toderasc, 17 Bogdan Zebega, 18 Valentin Ursache, 19 Viorel Lucaci, 20 Valentin Calafeteanu, 21 Csaba Gal, 22 Dan Dumbrava, 23 Mihai Lazar

Referee:  Jérôme Garces (France)

Ireland claim Springbok hat-trick

Ireland claimed a hat-trick of wins over South Africa with a well-deserved 15-10 victory in an enthralling Test match in Dublin on Saturday.

In an international match built up to the highest of standards, the 80 minutes played in the blinding mist at Croke Park was as tough and physical as you would expect from these two rugby heavyweights.

There was no love lost between the Six Nations and Tri-Nations champions, as both sides threw everything at each other.  But it was the South Africans that were left to do the dirty dishes afterwards, after succumbing to their fourth defeat on tour.

Ireland refused to be bullied by the brutal Boks and tackled their way to a well-earned victory over the world champions, who head back home with their reputation taking a small knock backwards.

Having led 10-6 at the break, South Africa were kept scoreless in the second half and watched helplessly as Irish fly-half Jonathan Sexton slotted over three match-winning penalties to seal the deal for his country.

The visitors had a chance to end their tour on a high in the final act of the game, but just could not bring to bear the necessary energy and team-work as they stumbled to another defeat on European soil.

In bitterly cold conditions, South Africa defended bravely but continued to lose badly in the possession and territory stakes.  The Springboks tried hard to pull it out of the fire with a try, but just did not have the depth or variation to break through.

Surprisingly, it was at the line-out that the Springboks struggled.  The influence of Ireland assistant coach Gert Smal, who just two years ago was working with John Smit and Victor Matfield, was patent as the Irish disrupted the Bok feed regularly.

If not for the Boks' dominance in other areas and the visitors' heroic defence, Ireland may have led at half-time.  But Sexton landed five of his seven kicks to justify his selection ahead of record scorer Ronan O'Gara, that completed an unbeaten month for the Six Nations champions.

The Springboks, who last won in the Emerald Isle in 2000, scored the only try of the game through flanker Schalk Burger.  Although the Irish struggled to get a try of their own, their pressure on the green and gold attack was enough to keep Sexton potting over the necessary points.

South Africa can consider themselves lucky to have kept fifteen men on the field for the entire game as their discipline crumbled under pressure, gifting Ireland two thirds of possession and three quarters of the territory.

Sexton's counterpart, Morne Steyn, missed several kicks in his most hesitant performance of the season and gave away a crucial 48th-minute penalty with a high tackle to make it 9-10 to the hosts.

Lock Andries Bekker was then lucky to stay on the field when he dropped his knee and forearm on Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery.  Sexton struck the resulting penalty to put Ireland 12-10 in front.

South Africa's other second row, Victor Matfield, was then called for not releasing on the ground after a turnover and Sexton kicked Ireland into its winning five-point lead.  Game, set and match!

The injury-hit Springboks were hit by the late withdrawal of influential lock Bakkies Botha because of a back injury.  Bekker stepped up from the bench, where there was no specialist second row cover, but there was little evidence of fatigue amid a frantic opening.

Although Sexton drew first blood for the Irish with a penalty, one had the impression that the Boks had the measure of the home side and would push on to victory.

This view was confirmed when the tourists scored a well-worked try in the fifteenth minute as centre Jaque Fourie popped the ball up to Burger crashing through on a straight line to score.  Steyn converted Burger's try and slotted a drop goal to extend the visitors' lead to 10-3 after 24 minutes.

But the scoreline didn't tell the story.

South Africa resisted a couple of Irish surges thanks to the defensive feats of Burger, Danie Rossouw and Wynand Olivier.  Heinrich Brussow also obliged with some steals off his own line.  Ireland coach Declan Kidney must have been fuming, while the South African coaches would have been breathing a collective sigh of relief.

However the little errors and lack of discipline were seeping into the play of the Springboks as assuredly as the fog was making their fingers numb with cold.

Sexton kicked his second penalty for Ireland in the 29th minute but missed opportunities, poor discipline and decision making by South Africa -- which would account for eventual defeat -- were starting to mount.

Steyn squandered six points by missing two long range kicks in the closing minutes of the first half.  Another penalty was conceded at the scrum and once again the Bok number ten missed the kick, though it was a third penalty that tested his range to the limit.

Ireland's scrum encountered further problems but they restored morale with two Sexton penalties that nudged them 12-10 ahead.  Winger Keith Earls was bundled into touch in the left corner by Steyn and JP Pietersen as the Irish began to dictate things again with ball in hand.

Gordon D'Arcy, on as a replacement for the injured Paddy Wallace, and young flanker Sean O'Brien, who came on for Stephen Ferris, added their ball-carrying abilities as the men in white began to pour forward.

South Africa, wilting beneath the relentless pressure, conceded another penalty but this time Sexton missed.  The Leinster pivot made it 15-10 in the 65th minute and, in truth, it might have been worse for the Boks because the Irish kicker pushed two other attempts.

The Bok management sent on Ruan Pienaar in a clear signal that the decision had made to go over to carrying the ball but instead he continued to hoof the ball away.

South Africa managed to launch one final do-or-die assault that saw Tendai Mtawarira rampage down the right wing, but Ireland doggedly defended their line -- their efforts summed up by Brian O'Driscoll's crucial last-minute tackle on Zane Kirchner.

It was a Test the Boks could, and probably should have won but in the end they just did not have the gumption to coax anything more out of tired legs and tired minds.

Man of the match:  Continuing where he left off on the Lions tour, Rob Kearney was assured throughout under the Springboks' high balls and showed just why he is rated as one of the best full-backs in world rugby.

Moment of the match:  In an absorbing encounter, it was a shame the only try was supplied by Bok flanker Schalk Burger.  The man the Irish love to boo after the infamous eye-gouging incident hoofed the ball into the crowd after grounding the try.

Villian of the match:  The fog!

The scorers:

For Ireland:
Pens:  Sexton 5

For South Africa:
Tries:  Burger
Cons:  Steyn
Drop-goal:  Steyn

Ireland:  15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (c), 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements:  16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Leo Cullen, 19 Sean O'Brien, 20 Peter Stringer, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Gordon D'Arcy.

South Africa:  15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Danie Rossouw, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 BJ Botha, 2 John Smit (c), 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements:  16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Dewald Potgieter, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Jean de Villiers.

Referee:  Nigel Owens (Wales)

Pumas burst Scotland's bubble

The joy at Scotland's win over Australia last week was short-lived as a late Martin Rodriguez drop goal saw Argentina to a 9-6 win at Murrayfield on Saturday.

It was a cold cold day in Edinburgh and the first half did nothing at all to warm the digits of the hardy souls who had braved Murrayfield's icy gates.

Scotland ran the ball with purpose of mind early on but despite some stretch marks appearing on the surface of the Pumas' defence, it held firm.  Scotland soon ran out of ideas -- indeed when it came to creative moves actually designed to create and cut a gap, there were few real ideas on show.

Ben Cairns and Sean Lamont came closest to breaching the wall, with the former taking a good drift ball but looking the wrong way for support and the latter making a swerving incisive run which did cause some panic but also swerved away from support.

Argentina offered nothing beyond grunt and kicking.  Federico Martin Aramburu dazzled with a turn of pace at one point under a Scottish kick but nobody ran any kind of threatening supporting line.

The forwards did pressure some penalties but the territory counted against them and Scotland's willingness to at least try and keep the ball in hand starved them of much opportunity.  After 27 minutes, Argentina had made 50 tackles and Scotland had made just eight.

Scotland also forced penalties, with the tactic of running the ball back from deep into Argentina's half ensuring that they were in kickable range.  Phil Godman missed two easy ones (Martin Rodriguez missed one too, is there something about Murrayfield this year?) but landed two others and Scotland led 6-0 at half-time in an utterly forgettable game of rugby.

The second half began no better.  Rodriguez's restart did not go ten metres and there was a hail of aerial balls punctuated by 16 phases of Argentinean forward drives, that punctuated by a penalty to Scotland.

Boredom may have been the motivation behind Nathan Hines' decision to upend Lucas Borges and dump him onto his shoulder-blades, whatever it was it earned Hines a needless yellow card and Rodriguez a second shot at goal, which he took well to make it 6-3.

In the interim, Rory Lamont left the field with what looked like a nasty ankle injury.  The game was interrupted for a while and when it resumed, Argentina were better, a lot better.  The forwards got some cohesion and began to bulldoze inroads, with one lengthy move culminating in an easy match-levelling penalty.

On that went for a bit, but Chris Cusiter's 50m break changed the momentum again.  Scotland again stretched the fibre of the Puma defence, this time with all sorts of little tears and holes beginning to open up.  Twelve minutes remained.

Fernandez had a stab at a lead-grabbing drop goal but it fell short and left, while Scotland continued to spread the ball again, seeing if tired legs could cover as well as the fresher ones at the start of the match.  Time ticked on and it eventually became evident they could.

Then came the sucker punch Argentina were always in danger of delivering.  Good territory, well-driven ball and a sweetly-struck drop goal from Rodriguez with two minutes left sealed the deal.

Last weekend was supposed to be some sort of rebirth of Scottish rugby but this match made all the more apparent how freakish that win over Australia might have been.

Man of the match:  Well, nobody really stood out.  But Alan Lewis did pretty well in testing conditions.

Moment of the match:  The winning drop goal might be about the only thing anybody will remember of this game in a couple of months' time.

Villain of the match:  That was an ugly tackle, Nathan Hines ...

The scorers:

For Scotland:
Pens:  Godman 2

For Argentina:
Pens:  Rodriguez 2
Drop goal:  Rodriguez

Yellow card:  Hines (Scotland, 50, dangerous tackle)

Scotland:  15 Rory Lamont, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 Alex Grove, 11 Thom Evans, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Chris Cusiter (c), 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 Alan MacDonald, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Alastair Kellock, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Moray Low, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements:  16 Dougie Hall, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Jason White, 19 Richie Vernon, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Chris Paterson, 22 Nick De Luca.

Argentina:  15 Horacio Agulla, 14 Lucas Borges, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Martin Rodriguez, 11 Federico Martin Aramburu, 10 Santiago Fernandez, 9 Alfredo Lalanne, 8 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe (capt), 7 Alejandro Abadie, 6 Alejandro Campos, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Martin Scelzo, 2 Alberto Vernet Basualdo, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements:  16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Rodrigo Roncero, 18 Estaban Lozada, 19 Tomas Leonardi, 20 Agustin Figuerola, 21 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 22 Horacio San Martin.

Date:  Saturday, November 28
Venue:  Murrayfield
Kick-off:  14.30 GMT
Referee:  Alan Lewis (Ireland)
Assistant referees:  Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland), Stuart Terheege (England)
Television match official:  Tim Hayes (Wales)
Assessor:  Michel Lamoulie (France)

All Blacks cruise past France

New Zealand will finish 2009 as the world's number-one ranked team thanks to an impressive 39-12 win over France at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille on Saturday.

A lot has been said about the state of the game over the past few days, but I challenge anyone calling for a change in the laws to go back and watch this game and then tell me that running rugby is dead.

Tries are there to be scored if you've got the balls to have a go ... and the skills to pull it off.

This is what Test rugby should be all about.  A ding-dong battle in the scrums, creativity amongst the backs and, most of all, a high-paced game that tested the skills of both attackers and defenders rather than just the kicking capabilities of the fly-halves and full-backs.

The All Blacks answered their critics with a wonderful display of positive rugby, and were rewarded with five tries.

While Tri-Nations champions South Africa have looked tired and uninspired on tour in November, New Zealand were full of zip and zest in Marseille.

Unlike against the Springboks, the French were unable to grab a stranglehold on the game with their powerful forwards as the visitors were eager to take the ball out wide at pace.

In fact both sides should be commended for the positive spirit with which they approached the game -- the All Blacks however made the difference with their near-flawless execution.

Perhaps most the impressive aspect of New Zealand's tour is the fact that -- just like last year -- they have yet to concede a try on this tour.

The French front row looked a like a pack of hungry wolves after winning their side a penalty at the first scrum and Julien Dupuy obliged by slotting the three points to give France the early lead.

New Zealand however replied with a brilliant try from Sitiveni Sivivatu who simply blitzed Vincent Clerc and Damien Traille, slicing between the two Frenchmen who could little but watch him sail by.

Les Bleus kept coming as Dupuy added two more penalties, including a second against the Kiwi scrum to take the lead back at 9-7.  But not for long.

The All Blacks' second try was even better than the first as Sivivatu turned on the gas from his own 22 before finding Mils Muliaina up in support.

Dan Carter added the conversion and then a penalty to give the visitors some breathing space before the All Black scrum took their revenge by pushing the Tricolor pack backwards on the French line.

Under the pressure Julien Bonnaire fumbled his pick up, allowing Jerome Kaino to dot down the loose ball.

Francois Trinh-Duc landed a long distance drop goal shortly before the half-time whistle to make the scores 22-12.

But, the second half however belonged solely to New Zealand.

When Dupuy missed two early attempts at goal it became clear it wasn't to be France's night.

Cory Jane was next to get on the scoreboard with a classic individual try, collecting his own kick ahead from the touchline to score under the posts.

With France running out of ideas and leaving gaps all over the park, Conrad Smith snuck away down an unattended blindside to rub salt into the wounds.

A late fling from France produced no more points.

Marc Lièvremont and his team with have to continue building if they are to challenge their group partners and hosts at the next World cup.

Man of the match:  He's had a tough year and was distinctly out of form during the Tri-Nations but Sitiveni Sivivatu was back to his very best -- scoring one try, setting up another and putting in some big hits.

Moment of the match:  For half an hour it was anyone's game, but when the All Blacks scrum stepped up and earned Jerome Kaino's try, New Zealand moved out of France's reach.  It wasn't the prettiest of tries, but it had a telling effect on the match as a whole.

Villain of the match:  Plenty of handbags were flung about, but there was no clear bad guy.

The Scorers

For France:
Pens:  Dupuy 3
Drop:  Trinh-Duc

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Sivivatu, Muliaina, Kaino, Jane, Smith
Cons:  Carter 4
Pens:  Carter 2

Yellow cards:  Franks (NZ -- 77th -- foul play)

France:  15 Damien Traille, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 David Marty, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Maxime Médard, 10 Francois Trinh-Duc, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Julien Bonnaire, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Romain Millo-Chluski, 4 Sébastien Chabal, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 2 William Servat, 1 Fabien Barcella.
Replacements:  16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Nicolas Mas, 18 Lionel Nallet, 19 Julien Puricelli, 20 Morgan Parra, 21 Yann David, 22 Cédric Heymans.

New Zealand:  15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Neemia Tialata, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements:  16 Corey Flynn, 17 Owen Franks, 18 Anthony Boric, 19 Tanerau Latimer, 20 Andy Ellis, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Luke McAlister.

Venue:  Stade Vélodrome
Referee:  Alain Rolland (Ireland)
Assistant referees:  George Clancy (Ireland), Simon McDowell (Ireland)
Television match officials:  Nigel Whitehouse(Wales)
Assessor:  Paul Bridgman (England)

Four-try Australia dominate Wales

Australia answered so many questions at the Millennium Stadium as they outplayed Wales 33-12 on Saturday.

Say what you will about the Wallabies but they do possess a class and zest that can dominate anyone on their day.  This was one of those unfortunately for the shell-shocked Welsh, who were left chasing gold shadows and falling off tackles for large parts of the Cardiff contest.

Pre-tour injuries to the tourists' starting centre duo were finally put behind them while the lateral hosts were hampered by losing Leigh Halfpenny, Shane Williams and Matthew Rees to go with the absent Mike Phillips, Ryan Jones and Tom Shanklin.

But one suspects that not even a full-strength Welsh under the roof would have stopped this rampant Australian outfit in this kind of form, as they were simply in another league on their final 2009 outing.  And yes, it went a long way to banishing any lingering memories of Murrayfield.

It was also to be a much-improved performance from fly-half Matt Giteau as his combination with Quade Cooper looked a cut above opposite numbers Stephen Jones and Jonathan Davies.

Quickly into his stride, the Brumby knocked over the opening three points from 50 metres after Ospreys tighthead Paul James was penalised at scrum-time.  And that proved to be the catalyst for the visitors, with centre Cooper spotting some lazy inside defence to put a racing Peter Hynes up to the home 22-metre.

What followed was a script that Wales' worst nightmare could not even match.

The departure of last week's double try-scorer Williams -- due to what looked like an innocuous injury -- was then followed up by fellow Lions Halfpenny and Rees leaving the field.  Now it really looked like being Australia's day.

More and more pressure was consequently being applied on the fragile-looking Welsh line and with Giteau intent to put things right, one sensed there was plenty more defending to do with 70 minutes remaining on the matchday clock.

Giteau was of course the orchestrator when the hosts were caught flat-footed soon after while the then-present Halfpenny left his job of watching the space in-behind.

The fly-half spotted this blunder and slid through a perfectly-weighted grubber that sat up nicely for man-of-the-match Digby Ioane.  But moments later the playmaker's vision was penalised by Barnes, who adjudged Hynes to be in front of a second cross-field kick that came across to the right.  Halfpenny slotted over the points with aplomb from 50 metres.

Then came an Australian double score, seconds later I might add.  Benn Robinson was able to stretch his legs down the left before feeding Drew Mitchell in support, who in turn sent James Horwill over for the visitors' second five-pointer.

Gold pressure continued to come in front of a quiet Cardiff support and following sustained pressure, it was then the turn of David Pocock to reach over and cross after a smart ball from hooker Stephen Moore.

An sign that mission was firmly accomplished had to be the sight of the impressive Pocock being held back on the bench for the whole second period, a second period that had a depressing air of inevitability about it from a home perspective.

Wales were predictably finished off in a clinical manner in the end when Giteau carved them open and Polota-Nau touched down on 61 minutes.  The on-song number ten added the extras, putting a seal on a high-class display packed with flair and deadly attacking execution while Wales must now regroup ahead of their Six Nations opener against England on February 6.

Man of the match:  So many Australian names come to mind.  The impressive first-half effort from David Pocock, the constant threat of Peter Hynes coming off his wing, Matt Giteau, both Benn Robinson and Ben Alexander.  But for his all-round showing in Stirling Mortlock's shoes, Digby Ioane picks up the award for his dynamism that had Wales struggling for answers.

Moment of the match:  Wales had a gilt-edged chance to get themselves back in the contest when Jamie Roberts was put through a hole.  All he had to do was back himself or offload possession to the supporting Tom James, but the winger slid from the pass and the chance to close matters had gone.

Villain of the match:  A game played in good spirits.  No award.

The scorers:

For Wales:
Pens:  Halfpenny, Jones 3

For Australia:
Tries:  Ioane, Horwill, Pocock, Polota-Nau
Con:  Giteau
Pen:  Giteau

Wales:  15 James Hook, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Jamie Roberts, 12 Jonathan Davies, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Andy Powell (c), 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Luke Charteris, 4 Alun-Wyn Jones, 3 Paul James, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements:  16 Huw Bennett, 17 Duncan Jones, 18 Jonathan Thomas, 19 Sam Warburton, 20 Martin Roberts, 21 Andrew Bishop, 22 Tom James.

Australia:  15 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 Peter Hynes, 13 Digby Ioane, 12 Quade Cooper, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Will Genia, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom (c), 5 Dean Mumm, 4 James Horwill, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements:  16 Tatafu Polota Nau, 17 Matt Dunning, 18 Mark Chisholm, 19 George Smith, 20 Luke Burgess, 21 James O'Connor, 22 Kurtley Beale.

Referee:  Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant referees:  Romain Poite (France), Peter Allan (Scotland)
Television match officials:  Geoff Warren (England)
Assessor:  Patrick Robin (France)

Losing run finally over for Italy

Italy ended a painful thirteen-game losing streak on Saturday with a morale-boosting 24-6 victory over Samoa at the Stadio Del Duca.

Despite being without inspirational captain Sergio Parisse due to long-term injury, the Azzurri were a cut above their opponents with Luke McLean's score and a penalty try adding to Craig Gower, Mirco Bergamasco and Tito Tebaldi's kicks.

Nick Mallett's Italy side went into the game at Ascoli Piceno looking to pick up their first win since June 2008.

Mallett made six changes to the team which lost 32-10 to South Africa last weekend and the new line-up responded with a determined display, building a 14-6 lead by half-time

Bergamasco kicked two penalties and Gower one for the home side, while Tebaldi sent over a drop.  Bergamasco also converted the penalty try.

Samoa were unable to register a score after in the second 40 minutes and to make matters worse had Henry Fa'afili sent off for a high tackle on McLean.

The scorers:

For Italy:
Tries:  McLean, Penalty
Con:  Mi Bergamasco
Pen:  Mi Bergamasco 2, Gower
Drop:  Tebaldi

For Samoa:
Pen:  Esau 2

Italy:  15 Luke McLean, 14 Kaine Robertson, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Craig Gower, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Alessandro Zanni, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Josh Sole, 5 Quintin Geldenhuys, 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (c), 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements:  16 Fabio Ongaro, 17 Ignacio Rouyet, 18 Antonio Pavanelli, 19 Simone Favaro, 20 Simon Piccone, 21 Riccardo Bocchino, 22 Alberto Sgarbi.

Samoa:  15 Titi Esau, 14 Henry Fa'fili, 13 Gavin Williams, 12 Seilala Mapasua, 11 David Lemi, 10 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 9 Junior Polu, 8 Henry Tuilagi, 7 Ofisa Treviranus, 6 George Stowers (c), 5 Kane Thompson, 4 Filipo Levi, 3 Justin Va'a, 2 Mahonri Schwalger, 1 Census Johnson.
Replacements:  16 Andrew Williams, 17 Sakaria Taulafo, 18 Jonny Fa'amatuainu, 19 Misioka Tomoteo, 20 Semiperive Semeane, 21 Uale Mai, 22 Lucky Munipola.

Referee:  Christophe Berdos (France)
Assistant referees:  James Jones (Wales), Pascal Gauzere (France)
TMO:  Jim Yuille (Scotland)

Japan do the double over Canucks

Japan completed a November Test match double over Canada on Saturday, beating the Canucks 27-6 in Tokyo.

Canada were much improved in comparison to last week's 46-8 loss and will hope to take that improvement into the match against Russia in Vancouver next weekend.

Alisi Tupuailei broke through the Canadian defensive line before passing onto Go Aruga, who sprinted over for the opening try early in the match.

Hitoshi Ono almost increased the lead in the 14th minute.  Phil O'Reilly ripped the ball away from a Canadian player in a maul and Ryan Nicholas bounced off a number of would-be tacklers to set up field position only for the Japan lock to be tackled just short of the line.

Six minutes later Japan did increase their lead, when Hirotoki Onozawa followed up a good chip from Shaun Webb and forced a scrum five.

Two phases later Kensuke Hatakeyama dived through a pile of bodies and was adjudged to have grounded the ball.  Nicholas added the extras as Japan went 12-0 up.

James Pritchard reduced the lead with a penalty in the 23rd minute after Japan were caught offside from a clearance kick by Webb and there was no further score in the half.

Having lost Kosuke Endo halfway through the first half, Japan were forced to make another change in the backs at half-time with James Arlidge coming on for an injured Aruga, but there was no perceptible change in the match momentum.

Michael Leitch crossed in the 48th minute after a good break from Takashi Kikutani, the Japan captain timing his run and pass to perfection.  Webb added the conversion to make it 19-3.

Ander Monro slotted over a penalty for Canada in the 56th minute to reduce the deficit to 19-6, only for Webb to reply with a penalty of his own five minutes later.

The Canadians then spent several minutes camped in the Japan 22 only to see their pressure turn into points at the other end when Webb intercepted a wayward Canada pass and raced 80 metres before being tackled.

Onozawa was in support and the ball was recycled before Arlidge and Nicholas put Ayumu Goromaru away for Japan's fourth try.

The scorers:

For Japan:
Tries:  Go Aruga, Kensuke Hatakeyama, Michael Leitch, Ayumu Goromaru
Cons:  Ryan Nicholas, Shaun Webb
Pen:  Ryan Nicholas

For Canada:
Pens:  James Pritchard, Ander Monro

Ireland put Fiji to the sword

Ireland eased their way past Fiji 41-6 at the Royal Dublin Showground on Saturday, running in five tries with Jonathan Sexton converting all of them in what was a sublime kicking display from the Irish debutant.

Centre Keith Earls bagged a double as the Six Nations warmed up for next weekend's big Test against South Africa in style.

The hosts only led 13-3 at the break but a try from Brian O'Driscoll five minutes into the second period sparked a glut of points for Declan Kidney's side.

Earls, full-back Rob Kearney and Shane Horgan added further scores after the break while Sexton's 100 per cent record with the boot earned him a personal 16-point haul.

Fiji fly-half Nicky Little scored his side's only points with a penalty either side of the break.

Sexton, making his debut at fly-half, put Ireland 3-0 ahead with a penalty after eight minutes as both sides took time to get to grips with the conditions.

A perfectly judged cross-kick from Sexton then almost brought about the first try.  Earls gathered the loose ball and fed Kearney but he was stopped just short of the line.

Ireland did not have to wait long for a try however, Earls going over beside the posts after taking Eoin Reddan's pass following a scrum.  Sexton's conversion put Ireland 10-0 clear.

Eventually Fiji began to secure some better possession, allowing Little to reduce the deficit to 10-3 with a well-struck penalty.

The visitors did well to hang in as Ireland were giving them increasing problems in the scrums, but the home team failed to take advantage and were then forced to defend close to their own line.

Fortunately, another big scrum which saw them push Fiji off their own ball relieved the pressure.  It was only then that Ireland really began to open up.

Once again Sexton was involved, breaking out from his own half, but the move finished with Gordon D'Arcy's pass being intercepted by Fiji full-back Norman Ligairi.

But the pressure told just before half-time with Sexton landing his second penalty to leave Ireland 13-3 clear at the interval.

To add to Ireland's problems, flanker Denis Leamy had to be stretchered off with an injury to his right leg.  Leinster tyro Sean O'Brien came on to make his debut at this level.

Fiji then conceded a frustrating try as Little saw O'Driscoll intercept his pass and run 40 metres to score with Sexton's conversion giving Ireland a 20-6 advantage and some breathing space.

With Tomas O'Leary on as a replacement at scrum-half for Reddan and Tony Buckley taking over from John Hayes in the front row, Ireland looked for more scores as the game went into the final quarter and the crowd was soon rewarded with a third try.

A well-worked move -- the ball travelled smoothly along from O'Leary, O'Driscoll and D'Arcy -- was finished off in the left corner by Earls.

Sexton kicked the difficult conversion, leaving Ireland 27-6 clear and in complete control.

Kearney, who did well to get the ball down under pressure from Mosese Rauluni, and Horgan, whose workmanlike performance deserved a try, added further touchdowns with the accurate Sexton landing both conversions from the touchline.

The second half against Fiji certainly saw Ireland find an extra gear or two in attack and Kidney and company will have some welcome selection headaches to work through before announcing the team to face the Springboks.

Man of the match:  Keith Earls crossed for two tries but fly-half Jonny Sexton claims this man of the match honour with an accomplished display on his way to a personal tally of 16 points.

Moment of the match:  Without taking anything away from Ireland's four try-scorers, it was the conversions that really caught the eye.  Sexton's three goals from the touchline were pure class, and really brought some sunshine to the rain-soaked crowd.

Villain of the match:  The rain.  Had it been clear skies, we're pretty sure both sides could have contributed a few more tries.

The scorers:

For Ireland:
Tries:  Earls 2, Horgan, Kearney, O'Driscoll
Cons:  Sexton 5
Pens:  Sexton 2

For Fiji:
Pens:  Little 2

Ireland:  15 Rob Kearney, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (c), 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Denis Leamy, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Leo Cullen, 3 John Hayes, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Tom Court.
Replacements:  16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Donncha O'Callaghan, 19 Sean O'Brien, 20 Tomas O'Leary, 21 Paddy Wallace, 22 Andrew Trimble.

Fiji:  15 Norman Ligairi, 14 Vereniki Goneva, 13 Gabiriele Lovobalavu, 12 Seremaia Bai (c), 11 Nasoni Roko, 10 Nicky Little, 9 Mosese Rauluni, 8 Asaeli Boko, 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Apolosi Satala, 5 Ifereimi Rawaqa, 4 Wame Lewaravu, 3 Viliame Seuseu, 2 Viliame Veikoso, 1 Asaike Tarogi.
Replacements:  16 Isireli Ledua, 17 Graham Dewes, 18 Leone Nakarawa, 19 Samu Bola, 20 Waisale Vatuvoka, 21 Josh Matavesi, 22 Timoci Nagusa

Referee:  Marius Jonker (South

Scotland shock the Wallabies

Scotland caused a major upset at Murrayfield on Saturday as -- after some late drama -- they won a largely dour encounter 9-8 against Australia.

There was very little to write home about in a Test fixture predicted to act as the Wallabies' ideal tonic after suffering a painful draw in Dublin.

But that was not the case as the gritty Scots managed to pounce on an off night for the tourists, who will also be concerned over Wycliff Palu after the vital number eight was stretchered from the action due to a neck injury.

The loss of Palu looks highly likely to see coach Robbie Deans bring in either George Smith or Richard Brown at the base when they tackle Wales next week.

Australia will also be slightly concerned regarding Matt Giteau's form from the kicking tee after the usually reliable fly-half converted just one attempt from a whole host of opportunities.  The one that hurt the most was his wayward conversion shot of Ryan Cross' late try that would have spared the tourists' blushes.

It was the improving Scots' first win over Australia following a tough 27 years, with the filthy weather somewhat reminiscent of their last victory back in 1981.

Giteau was on hand to open the scoring on five minutes however, after home hooker Ross Ford struggled to find his man at lineout time early on.

Then it was the turn of a succession of injury issues for both coaches.  Australia were deprived of loosehead Benn Robinson on eighteen minutes for Sekope Kepu, who was also off form in fumbling two simple passes.

Then Scotland captain Chris Cusiter hurt his shoulder with an excellent cover tackle on full-back Adam Ashley-Cooper and Rory Lawson was called into the fray, but not before the Glasgow man saved his side by holding up Stephen Moore.

But the driving maul was one area of dominance for Scotland and it won them a 27th-minute penalty which Godman arrowed between the posts to level matters, completely against the run of play.

Normal service soon resumed, Giteau pulling the strings wonderfully both with the boot and out of hand.

But with four minutes of the half remaining, he was left red-faced after missing a point-blank penalty when Scotland had infringed at a scrum.

Australia ran their next penalty but Giteau was again off-target with a simple drop goal.

Robinson withdrew the under-performing Morrison for Nick De Luca at half-time.

However, a returning Giteau's place-kicking woes continued two minutes after the restart, though his 40-metre miss was more forgivable.

Australia were picking up where they left off and captain Rocky Elsom bulldozed his way over five minutes in.  Referee Romain Poite went to the video and, after a succession of replays, the try was not given.

Under all sorts of pressure, Scotland suddenly turned defence into attack when De Luca brilliantly kicked into the space behind, forcing Will Genia to concede a penalty.  It was the start of a massive swing in territory.

The remarkable drama continued when Mitchell celebrated a 65th-minute try after more Australia pressure only to be hauled back for a horrible forward pass from Quade Cooper, much to the delight of the Scotland fans before Palu was carried off.

Scotland continued to make crucial tackles inside their own 22 to preserve their lead before replacement Chris Paterson dropped a goal from 25 metres with just four minutes to go.

That sparked the Wallabies to set up camp five metres from the home whitewash and, despite yet more heroic defending, Cross eventually went over in the first minute of stoppage-time to leave Giteau to win the game from wide out.  He missed and Scotland claimed a famous victory.

Man of the match:  Apologies to the winning team but Australia's utter dominance in terms of possession and territory means Wycliff Palu picks up the accolade for a destructive performance from number eight.  Unfortunately, the Waratah left the field under an oxygen mask but he busted so many holes in the Scotland defence that his effort needed recognition.

Moment of the match:  An out-of-sorts Matt Giteau missing penalties and a simple drop-goal proved to be the difference at Murrayfield.

Villain of the match:  Maybe this is slightly harsh but so as not to let the gong go unassigned, Quade Cooper, after he blew a simple three on two with a long, forward pass out to Drew Mitchell when a simpler option was required.

The scorers:

For Scotland:
Pen:  Godman 2
Drop:  Paterson

For Australia:
Tries:  Cross
Pen:  Giteau

Scotland:  15 Rory Lamont, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Alex Grove, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Simon Danielli, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Chris Cusiter (c), 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 John Barclay, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Alastair Kellock, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Moray Low, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements:  16 Dougie Hall, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Jason White, 19 Richie Vernon, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Chris Paterson, 22 Nick De Luca.

Australia:  15 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 Peter Hynes, 13 Digby Ioane, 12 Quade Cooper, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Will Genia, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 George Smith, 6 Rocky Elsom (c), 5 Mark Chisholm, 4 James Horwill, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements:  16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 Sekope Kepu, 18 Dean Mumm, 19 Richard Brown, 20 Luke Burgess, 21 Ryan Cross, 22 James O'Connor.

Referee:  Romain Poite (France)
Assistant referees:  Nigel Owens (Wales), Jérôme Garces (France)
Television match officials:  Graham Hughes (England)
Assessor:  Tappe Henning (South Africa)

France demolish Samoa

France ran seven tries past Samoa on Saturday as they cruised to an impressive 43-5 victory at the Stade de France.

After crashing and bashing South Africa into oblivion last week, a virtually all-new XV de France showed they can turn on the flair when needed, giving Marc Lièvremont a couple of selection headaches leading up to next week's clash with the All Blacks.

Not that France's coach will be complaining as his 'second team' proved his squad has the variety of resources needed to adapt their game as they wish.

Most importantly play-maker François Trinh-Duc showed that he can launch his back-line as well as he can keep his pack moving forward -- and did it all without getting injured thus ensuring France will take some sort of continuity into the showdown with New Zealand.

All and any intrigue as to the result in Paris evaporated by the quarter-hour mark, by which time France has scored three tries to lead 21-0.

The hosts got off to a perfect start when hooker Dimitri Szarzewski was able to stroll over untouched from five metres out when he exploited a gap left by the Samoan defence around the fringes of a ruck after just three minutes.

France doubled the lead four minutes later when wing Vincent Clerc ran onto a neat grubber from full-back Maxime Médard.  Try number three was soon to follow as Trinh-Duc chipped over the top for centre Yannick Jauzion, who plucked the ball out of the air one-handed in a fabulous display of skill.

Samoa fought back bravely but full-back Lolo Lui and fly-half Fa'atonu Fili proceeded to miss three kickable penalties between them to leave their side scoreless.

France continued their merciless show of dominance with a textbook maul off the back of a line-out to score an essai collectif.  The TMO reckoned the ball had touched the grass somewhere at the bottom of the pile of bodies and awarded the try.  Morgan Parra added his fourth conversion to extend the lead to 28 points.

Debutant wing Benjamin Fall scored France's fifth try just before half-time when Julien Bonnaire provided a carbon copy of Médard's earlier grubber for Clerc and the Bayonne wing pounced to send Les Bleus into the changing rooms ahead 33-0.

It was much of the same after the break.  Trinh-Duc was on hand to brilliantly finish off France's sixth try with a neat step and an outstretched arm.

The fly-half also scored the number seven for the hosts, after bursting down the blindside and showing his pace down the touchline with a 30m sprint to finish untouched.

At 43-0 France understandably went into their shells a bit and Samoa dominated the final quarter.

The Islanders were rewarded with late consolation try when Castres lock Iosefa Tekori charged over to cap a period of sustained pressure.

Man of the match:  France will be able to draw a number of positives from this game:  scrum-half Morgan Parra showed he has the form to back up Julien Dupuy as a place picker, Sebastien Chabal showed he still has plenty to offer in the engine room while Yannick Jauzion showed he still has all the class that made him one of the world's most feared centres.  But we'll go with Francois Trinh-Duc who repaid the faith put in him by his coach with two tries.

Moment of the match:  If Dimitri Szarzewski's try after three minutes had punctured Samoa's bubble before it had a chance to fill up, Yannick Jauzion's one-handed catch to score after fourteen minutes truly ended the visitors' hopes.

Villain of the match:  As if it wasn't enough for Misioka Timoteo to nearly decapitate Vincent Clerc with a high tackle, he followed it up with some foul language as Clerc lay there counting stars.  Not cool.

The scorers:

For France:
Tries:  Szarzewski, Clerc, Jauzion, Dusautoir, Fall, Trinh-Duc 2
Cons:  Parra 5

For Samoa:
Tries:  Tekori

France:  15 Maxime Medard, 14 Benjamin Fall, 13 David Marty, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Vincent Clerc, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Julien Bonnaire, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Alexandre Lapandry, 5 Pascal Pape, 4 Sebastien Chabal, 3 Sylvain Marconnet (c), 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements:  16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Nicolas Mas, 18 Romain Millo-Chluski, 19 Julien Puricelli, 20 Julien Dupuy, 21 Damien Traille, 22 Yann David, 23 Fabien Barcella.

Samoa:  15 Lolo Lui, 14 David Lemi, 13 Henry Fa'afili, 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Fa'atonu Fili, 9 Junior Polu, 8 Henry Tuilagi, 7 Ofisa Treviranus, 6 Jonathan Fa'amatuainu, 5 Kane Thompson, 4 Filipo Levi, 3 Cencus Johnston, 2 Mahonri Schwalger (c), 1 Justin Va'a.
Replacements:  16 Andrew Williams, 17 Jeremiah Fatialofa, 18 Iosefa Tekori, 19 Misioka Timoteo, 20 Uale Mai, 21 Fuimaolo-Sapolu, 22 Titi Esau.

Venue:  Stade de France, St. Denis (Paris)
Referee:  Dave Pearson (England)
Assistant referees:  Rob Debney (England), Stuart Terheege (England)
Television match officials:  Geoff Warren (England)
Assessor:  David Herbert (Wales)

All Blacks conquer Twickenham

New Zealand added to their unbeaten tour trail by snatching a 19-6 victory over a spirited England on Saturday.

Martin Johnson had made a couple of tweaks for their final November fixture of 2009, with a more comfortable Mark Cueto preferred to Ugo Monye in the full-back jersey and the size of Simon Shaw taking over from Louis Deacon.

And what an impact the duo made for their under pressure Team Manager, particularly the Sale man whose combination of returning and high takes were evident for large parts of an enjoyable 80 minutes at HQ.  Twickenham even swapped its boos for echoes of "Swing Low".

But New Zealand are not the IRB world top-ranked side for nothing and demonstrated their ability to strike in short spells when Jimmy Cowan's well-taken score close to the hour pretty much sealed where this match was heading.

England knew they had to improve dramatically after words such as "dismal" -- and other less printable qualifiers -- were openly associated with that 16-9 victory over Argentina.

And that they certainly did as a new hunger and gusto carried their charge -- something that was not on show seven days ago.

Saturday's opening 40 was arguably dominated by them, despite their higher tackle count (71-45).  But England were forced into an early change on just two minutes that could have knocked their physical gameplan, with an injured Joe Worsley hobbling from the field.

Lewis Moody, Paul Hodgson and Matt Banahan stood up and were counted, throwing their differing weights around while Daniel Carter struggled to find his range and general direction -- he did become New Zealand's highest Test scorer on 24 minutes, however.

The Canterbury fly-half seemed strangely out of sorts and was the architect of many of his side's mistakes in the contest.  That didn't matter in the end thanks to his captain's dogged display being aided by Sitiveni Sivivatu and Mils Muliaina.

Steve Borthwick's outfit were unfortunate not to be further ahead than their two-time three-point advantage early on, as Jonny Wilkinson and the hit-and-miss Carter exchanged penalty goals.  The moment that comes to mind was when Monye managed to catch New Zealand cold as they tried to attack from deep -- Conrad Smith having his pass charged down but for the wing being called back by Jonathan Kaplan for that knock-on.

New Zealand had their own moment of "what if" on 20 minutes when a rare moment of class from Carter saw him stand up a defender to allow Conrad Smith to set up Muliaina for the corner.  He was just ushered into touch by early replacement Croft and centre Ayoola Erinle.  Had he carried the ball in the right hand ...

And so it came down to the All Blacks' smash and grab in the second period.  Cowan may take the plaudits but it was all about Sivivatu and McCaw on Saturday as they head to Marseille with their tour objective still on track.

Man of the match:  Plenty of players put their hand up for the accolade but his general nuisance around the park coupled with setting up Jimmy Cowan's score, Richie McCaw edges out Paul Hodgson, Sitiveni Sivivatu and Lewis Moody.

Moment of the match:  We have just covered it.  New Zealand's powerful winger stood up two tacklers deep in English territory before feeding McCaw, who shipped the ball onto Cowan in the corner.  Game over.

Villain of the match:  Nothing to report.

The scorers:

For England:
Pen:  Wilkinson 2

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Cowan
Con:  Carter
Pen:  Carter 4

England:  15 Mark Cueto, 14 Matt Banahan, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Ayoola Erinle, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Paul Hodgson, 8 James Haskell, 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Joe Worsley, 5 Steve Borthwick (c), 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Duncan Bell, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Tim Payne.
Replacements:  16 Steve Thompson, 17 David Wilson, 18 Louis Deacon, 19 Tom Croft, 20 Danny Care, 21 Shane Geraghty, 22 Mathew Tait.

New Zealand:  15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Zac Guildford, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan , 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Adam Thomson , 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements:  16 Aled de Malmanche, 17 John Afoa, 18 Anthony Boric, 19 Jerome Kaino, 20 Andy Ellis, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Tamati Ellison.

Referee:  Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Assistant referees:  Alan Lewis (Ireland), Simon McDowell (Ireland)
Television match officials:  Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Assessor:  Patrick Robin (France)

Shane shines in Welsh win

Two tries from Shane Williams, including one magnificent solo effort, helped Wales to a healthy-looking 33-16 win over Argentina in Cardiff on Saturday.

An error-strewn match was lit up by Williams' try after 65 minutes, which quashed any thoughts Argentina had harboured of a comeback after Martin Rodriguez had brought them back to within a score at 23-16 on the hour.

Williams aside, the match was played as though both teams had been chloroformed at times.  Perhaps there was something in those water bottles that underling coaches take it upon themselves to bring onto the field at any and every opportunity.  The number of handling errors shot off the scale, which meant long periods of kicks, return kicks and punctuating scrums.

Both sides did show glimpses of wanting to do something constructive, with James Hook and Shane Williams forever a threat out wide for the Welsh and both Argentinean half-backs looking lively on their toes when they did get some quick ball.

But the supporting runners were either lacking imagination or just plain lacking.  The game built up a rhythm.  Bash went the runners.  Bosh went the tacklers.  Boom went the boots.  "B..." went the crowd.  As rhythms go, it was about as entertaining as one of those emanating from some city wide boy's bass bin.  It was every bit as irritating for the casual onlooker as well.

Aside from the brilliance of Williams, Wales certainly won by being more clinical.  They did not concede a penalty for the first half-hour and they forced a huge number in the final half-hour.  In the final reckoning, Rodrigo Roncero conceded almost as many penalties as the entire Welsh team.  He's a great loosehead, but he really can be a liability at times.

In between those, Argentina's Rodriguez landed three goals to keep his team just about in touch -- he hit the post with another as well -- before he scored his try, but Wales were never really in danger.  The Welsh line-out was flawless and while the scrum was uneasy, much of that was down to Argentinean niggle rather than superior scrummaging prowess, enough of it picked up by the referee.

Welsh handling was better as well, if just a little too laterally exploratory at times.  It was a step up, but it was curiously unsatisfying, as though it was an advertisement of Wales' potential rather than their true playing ability.  Whether they realise that potential or not ... we'll see against Australia next week, but Warren Gatland might be frustrated.

The highlight of the first half was undoubtedly its lone try.  Wales won a penalty, and Stephen Jones took the ball up to the mark but everything stopped for Roncero to receive a magic sponge to his leg.  When time was called back on again, the entire Puma team turned back and trudged to wards the posts, while Jones tapped and raced away to the corner, ruining his moment of glory somewhat by landing on the ball in the touchdown and winding himself quite badly.  But he did recover in time to land the conversion.

Otherwise, the first half was all about the errors from both teams and some truly dire kicking.  Jones landed two penalties, Rodriguez one just before the break, where the teams went in with Wales 13-3 ahead.

It took Wales 21 seconds to extend their lead in the second half when the big paw of Luke Charteris got in the way of Gus Figuerola's clearing box-kick and Williams ducked and weaved his way to the line.  He could actually have made it just through sheer pace, but the way he cut inside, stepped, ducked and evaded Patricio Albacete's arms was almost mocking.  No wonder Martyn Williams shoved him over the line at the end -- "stop messing about!"

Jones made it 20-3 with the extras, and then followed another laboured passage of play in which Rodriguez notched two penalties to one from Leigh Halfpenny.  Then Rodriguez charged down a clearance kick so lackadaisical it verged on the negligent and raced away for a try, which he converted himself and had Argentina somehow within a score at 23-16.

The response was a moment of beauty.  Williams picked up a loose ball, stepped and burst through the lumbering bodies like a bullet.  The acceleration took him all the way home and under the posts, the game-breaking moment.  And that, with the exception of a long penalty from Halfpenny, was that.

Man of the match:  It should not come as a surprise to those who have made their way this far that this award goes to Shane Williams.

Moment of the match:  As with man of the match, except to Shane Williams' second try.

Villain of the match:  No real villainy, but Rodrigo Roncero still needs to learn the lesson about quelling Latin temperament and getting on with it at times.

The scorers:

For Wales:
Tries:  S Jones, S Williams 2
Cons:  S Jones 3
Pens:  S Jones 2, Halfpenny 2

For Argentina:
Try:  Rodriguez
Con:  Rodriguez
Pens:  Rodriguez 3

Wales:  15 James Hook, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Jamie Roberts, 12 Jonathan Davies, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Ryan Jones (c), 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Andy Powell, 5 Luke Charteris, 4 Alun-Wyn Jones, 3 Paul James, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements:  16 Huw Bennett, 17 Duncan Jones, 18 Jonathan Thomas, 19 Dan Lydiate, 20 Dwayne Peel, 21 Andrew Bishop, 22 Tom James.

Argentina:  15 Horacio Agulla, 14 Lucas Borges, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Martin Rodriguez, 11 Mauro Comuzzi, 10 Santiago Fernandez, 9 Agustin Figuerola, 8 Juan Fernandez Lobbe (c), 7 Alfredo Abadie, 6 Tomas Leonardi, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Mariano Sambucetti, 3 Martin Scelzo, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements:  16 Alberto Vernet Basualdo, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Manuel Carizza, 19 Alejandro Campos, 20 Alfredo Lalanne, 21 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 22 H San Martin.

Referee:  George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees:  Christophe Berdos (France), David Changleng (Scotland)
Television match officials:  Jim Yuille (Scotland)
Assessor:  Michel Lamoulie (France)

Springboks off the mark in Europe

South Africa finally got their end-of-year tour off the mark as they stuttered along to a 32-10 win over a determined Italy outfit at the Stadio Friuli in Udine on Saturday.

The Springboks will take the win, but this victory will do nothing to their self-esteem or credentials on this somewhat unrewarding trip of Europe that has only dented their title as world champions.

A comedy of errors from the visitors -- most of them in the scrum against the Azzurri -- didn't help the South Africans' cause to stamp their authority on a game that was touted as a warm-up for next week's finale against Ireland.

In front of another passionate home crowd, the Italians were their own worst enemies as the goal-kickers -- in a repeat of last week's defeat to New Zealand -- missed a number of penalties that would have given the scoreline a bit more respectability.

However, be that as it may, Italy were still able to stay in the contest at half-time after trailing 12-7 but failed to keep the pressure on as the men in green and gold ran in a further two tries to seal the deal.

It was South Africa's first win in their fourth match on tour, but while the final scoreline was emphatic enough in the Springboks' favour it was not the rousing performance that might have been hoped for to erase the memory of the past two weeks.

The Springboks scored four tries, all of them to the backs, and it was a day where the South Africans should have been exceedingly thankful that they had a massive advantage behind the scrum.

For the umpteenth time on this tour, the Boks were pummelled in the set-scrums and if the truth be told, Italy's comfort in most aspects of the forward battle should be taken as a loud warning ahead of next week's big match in Dublin.

When playing the world champions as heavy underdogs the last thing you want to do is pay for some early indiscipline.  But in his first start for Italy, flanker Simone Favaro charged upfield and hit scrum-half Fourie du Preez with a stupid late tackle that earned him a yellow card and resulted in a simple penalty in front of the posts.

Morne Steyn produced a most uncharacteristic mistake by missing, however the South Africans quickly struck with a great try which was fashioned by a break from Ryan Kankowski for Bryan Habana to capitalise on the quick ball that was spread out wide in the sixth minute.

Steyn missed the conversion but just after Favaro was allowed back on, Habana beat Matteo Pratichetti on the outside and slipped the ball inside for Jaque Fourie to score under the posts.

Steyn finally landed a kick and with 14 minutes gone the hosts were already 12-0 down.  It looked as though it might be one-way traffic, but up to that point there had yet to be a set scrum.  When the teams did finally scrum down, the Italians were as solid as a house, and completely destroyed the Boks with the second scrum of the match.

Italy continued to improve and should have scored as Alessandro Zanni broke to within a metre of the line but his support was slow in reaching him and the Springboks cleared their lines thanks to a trademark Heinrich Brussow steal.

Italy's first shot at goal had to be taken upstairs to decide whether the ball had in fact managed to squeeze in between the uprights.  Gower was convinced, but the TMO was not and with 30 minutes up on the clock, South Africa held on to their 12-point lead.

But the former Australian-born rugby league international finally came good a few minutes later as he gave a subtle inside pass to centre Gonzalo Garcia with Alberto Sgarbi acting as a decoy.

Completely flummoxing the Springbok backline, Garcia ran in untouched for a splendid touchdown that was clearly scripted to aim at one of the Bok weaknesses.  Steyn held his line, but Adi Jacobs didn't hold his, and the try was all too easy.  At 12-7, and with the scrum flying backwards, the Boks were in big trouble.

There was still time, though, for both Italy full-back Luke McLean and Steyn to miss penalties before the break.

Six minutes into the second period Steyn landed a penalty before McLean missed his second of the afternoon after Italy's scrum caused the kind of problems that had the All Blacks struggling a week ago.

But on 53 minutes, the Springboks scored after more calamitous Italian defending as Danie Rossouw broke a tackle on the left-hand touchline.  The Bok flanker slipped the ball inside to Habana who cut inside and popped the ball to Du Preez, who held off Zanni and Mirco Bergamasco to score.

Gower soon pulled back three points from a penalty after his own midfield break but Steyn replied on 64 minutes to make it 10-25.

As Italian legs started to tire, gaps appeared and Du Preez scythed through following a line-out and fed replacement Wyand Olivier to score by the posts -- his first in 26 Tests -- with another replacement in the form of Ruan Pienaar converting.

With Jacobs struggling so much with his defensive game, and Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll licking his lips about his rematch with the Bok team that beat the British and Irish Lions in mid-year, the smart money should be on Olivier wearing the number twelve jersey at Croke Park.

But the area that should come under most scrutiny in the build-up to the final game of the tour is undeniably the front row.  And against the Italians, this may be a timely pointer to the Springbok management as they consider their options.

Man of the match:  Bryan Habana and Jaque Fourie were prominent in the Bok backline along with Heinrich Brussow in the forwards, but our vote goes with number nine Fourie du Preez who once again showed his running ability, kicking ability and try-scoring ability.

Moment of the match:  All the tries scored in this match were gems, but we think Du Preez's touchdown after the break was what the Boks needed to shut the Italians out.

Villain of the match:  Assistant referee James Jones appears to not like the colour green and gold.  He was the man in charge during the Wembley defeat, penalizing the Boks unjustly at the breakdown, and was at it again -- albeit from the touchline -- today.  As Bryan Habana attempted to save a touch-finder, the Welshman ruled the winger to have put a foot in touch when Habana was in fact ... in the air!  Oh, and the Italians scored a great try from the ensuing line-out.

The scorers:

For Italy:
Tries:  Garcia
Pens:  Gower
Cons:  Gower

For South Africa:
Tries:  Habana, Fourie, Du Preez, Olivier
Cons:  Steyn 2, Pienaar
Pens:  Steyn 2

Yellow card:  Favaro (Italy, 4mins)

Italy:  15 Luke McLean, 14 Matteo Pratichetti, 13 Alberto Sgarbi, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Craig Gower, 9 Simon Picone;  8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Simone Favaro, 5 Quintin Geldenhuys, 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements:  16 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 17 Ignacio Rouyet, 18 Antonio Pavanello, 19 Josh Sole, 20 Mauro Bergamasco, 21 Tito Tebaldi, 22 Gonzalo Canale.

South Africa:  15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Adi Jacobs, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Danie Rossouw, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 John Smit (c), 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Wian du Preez.
Replacements:  16 Tendai Mtawarira, 17 BJ Botha, 18 Victor Matfield, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Francois Hougaard, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Wynand Olivier.

Referee:  Alain Rolland (Ireland)

USA edge out Uruguay

Depsite a late comeback form the home side, the USA managed to beat Uruguay 27-22 in a World Cup qualifying match in Montevideo on Saturday.

Thirteen points in the last six minutes have boosted Uruguay's chances of claiming the Americas 2 spot at Rugby World Cup 2011 after the first leg of their play-off.

Uruguay had won only one of their 10 previous meetings with the Eagles, their most recent loss being a 43-9 defeat in Salt Lake City last year, and at 27-9 they would have been left with a mountain to climb in Florida next weekend

However, Uruguay full back Jeronimo Etcheverry -- a member of their IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy winning side of 2008 -- stepped forward to kick two penalties and convert his last minute try to cut the deficit to five points at the final whistle to the delight of the 2,000 strong crowd

The 21-year-old's fourth penalty of the night and his converted try came when Uruguay enjoyed a one-man advantage after Eagles replacement Mike Petri was sent to the sin-bin by Argentinean referee Javier Mancuso

"We are happy to win, but honestly a bit disappointed that we gave up so many points in the last quarter" admitted Eagles coach Eddie O'Sullivan

"We would have liked to walk away with a larger point spread, but in the end are happy to take away the victory"

The Eagles had taken the lead in the 15th minute at the Charrua Stadium with scrum half Tim Usasz's try, before fly half Nicolas Morales got the home side on the board with a penalty five minutes later Another try for Kevin Swiryn and a Mike Hercus penalty, though, gave the visitors a 13-3 advantage at half time

Centre Junior Sifa touched down eight minutes after the break and this time Hercus was able to add the conversion Once more though Los Teros came back at their visitors with Etcheverry kicking his first penalty in the 55th minute to make it 20-6

Uruguay's cause was not helped by the loss of prop Mario Sagario to the sin-bin just past the hour mark, and while Etcheverry kicked another penalty, the Eagles pulled further away with replacement Alipate Tuilevuka's try

However with Uruguay's scrum and maul remaining strong, Etcheverry brought them back into the match and strengthened their chances of taking the Americas 2 place alongside two-time winners Australia, Italy, Ireland and Europe 2 in Pool C at Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand

The teams:

Uruguay:  15 Jeronimo Etcheverry, 14 Martin Crosa, 13 Juan Llovet, 12 Joaquin Pastore, 11 Leandro Leivas, 10 Nicolas Morales, 9 Juan Campomar, 8 Rodrigo Capo (c), 7 Alfredo Giuria, 6 Nicolas Brignoni, 5 Matias Fonseca, 4 Carlos Protasi, 3 Mario Sagario, 2 Martin Espiga, 1 Rodrigo Sànchez,
Replacements:  16 Carlos Arboleya 17 Alejo Corral 18 Juan Rombys 19 Juan Alzueta 20 Manuel Martinez 21 Alejandro Silveira 22 Tomas Jolivet

USA:  15 Chris Wyles, 14 Takudzwa Ngwenya, 13 Paul Emerick, 12 Junior Sifa, 11 Kevin Swiryn, 10 Mike Hercus, 9 Tim Usasz, 8 Nic Johnson, 7 Todd Clever (captain), 6 Louis Stanfill, 5 Hayden Smith, 4 John Van der Giessen, 3 Will Johnson, 2 Phil Thiel, 1 Mate Moeakiola.
Replacements:  16 Brian McClenahan 17 Jacob Sprague 18 Alec Parker 19 Jonathan Gagiano 20 Mike Petri 21 Nese Malifa 22 Pate Tuilevuka

Japan thrash Canada

Asian champions Japan scored six tries as they thrashed Canada 46-8 in the opener of their two-match Test series in Sendai on Sunday.

Left flanker Michael Leitch opened the scoring in the ninth minute with stand-off Shaun Webb missing the conversion but later adding two penalties to take an 11-3 lead, which appeared enough to beat the visitors.

Number eight Takashi Kikutani and full back Go Aruga added two more converted tries to end the first half 25-3, with Canada's points coming from a James Pritchard penalty.

Substitute Alisi Tupuailei, left winger Hirotoki Onozawa, and hooker Shota Horie added three more tries with conversions to make it 46-3 before Nathan Hirayama touched down a consolation try for Canada in the dying minutes.

The second match will be played in Tokyo next Saturday.

The Scorers: 

For Japan: 
Tries:  Michael Leitch, Takashi Kikutani, Go Aruga, Alisi

Tupuailei, Hirotoki Onozawa, Shota Horie.
Cons:  Shaun Webb(4), James Arlidge.
Pens:  Shaun Webb (2).

For Canada: 
Try:  Nathan Hirayama.
Pens:  James Pritchard.

BOD delivers Ireland rescue

Australia's Grand Slam aspirations were foiled by a last-minute Brian O'Driscoll try to seal a 20-20 draw in Dublin on Sunday.

The Wallabies stepped up a gear from their defeat of England last week and delivered by some distance their most polished performance of the year, capped by a fine second-half try from Rocky Elsom, returning to Dublin where he was so revered earlier this year.

He could have been the villain of the piece, but as he has done so often, Brian O'Driscoll accelerated through a glaring gap in the final minute and steamed under the posts to cap his 100th Test with another crucial try for Ireland.

The stage had been set for such a finale before the game, but Australia threatened to ruin the party for long periods.

The Wallabies showed many aspects of lessons having been learned from their difficult Tri-Nations series.  Disturbingly for Ireland, they looked a yard faster for much of the match, even though Ireland produced the stirring fightback in the final ten minutes.

Most disturbing of all for the Irish was the manner in which Australia's scrum dismantled the Irish eight.  John Hayes had a horrible day.  Three times in the second half, the Wallaby eight first got the shove on, then splintered the Irish eight.  Once on Ireland's own ball.  Both Scotland and Wales should have made a note of that in bold.

Both sides kept the game tight, but Australia managed that much better.  There were fewer errors with hand and especially boot.  Quade Cooper, inconsistent for the Reds but undoubtedly talented, looked like he'd been playing Test rugby for years, so intelligent was his positioning and kicking.

Ireland did not fare so well.  Too many kicks were too long, or too central, or too high ... there was always a margin of error, rarely a perfect delivery.  On the rare occasions they did make a clean break or a player ran a threatening angle, the support was conspicuous by its absence and Ireland gave away too many penalties on attack.

But then Ireland were under pressure right from the 128th second, when Drew Mitchell opened the scoring.  Ronan O'Gara took the ball too flat and zipped a pass out to O'Driscoll, whose attempt to drift onto the ball meant he was not forward enough to catch it.  Mitchell scooped it up and made the 30m to the line with something to spare.  After three minutes, his day could only get better.  It did.

Thereafter, things got cagey.  Jonathan Kaplan set out his stall to be tight at the breakdowns, challenging the teams to respond imaginatively and let momentum build, but both sides continued to fret over opening the ball and opted to kick rather than let possession fall foul of Kaplan's shrill whistle.  A shame -- had the teams bought into it, we could have had a cracker.

As it was, it came in fits and starts.  Both Matt Giteau and Elsom made individual line-breaks, Giteau's nearly to the line, but neither one was capitalised on properly -- in Giteau's case, a glaring lack of support.

O'Gara opted for an unorthodox chip penalty for Tommy Bowe to run onto in the corner, but the Ospreys winger couldn't get onto the end of it under pressure from Digby Ioane.  Luke Fitzgerald was released down the left, but the Australian cover smothered any chance of an offload and the move petered out.

By half-time, Australia thus led 10-6, with Giteau landing one penalty to O'Gara's two as the scoring additions to Mitchell's try.

The second half was better as a spectacle, much better for Australia.  The forwards cured their line-out woes of the first half -- where they had lost four out of eight -- and found a real collective head of steam, playing both the referee and the fringes far far better than Ireland.  Giteau missed one penalty, but landed his second after 55 minutes, by which point Australia had had nearly 70 per cent of the second-half territory and possession.

Then Ireland pulled a try back.  Cian Healy, who had not had the best of debuts in the tight, was at least rampant in the loose.  He won the restart and bullocked into the Australian 22.  Eight close phases followed, culminating in a simple two pass move for Bowe who scored by the posts.

Tied at thirteen, Australia simply carried on without a blip.  Healy once again bustled forward, but the ball was turned over and the Wallabies gloriously moved the ball from side to side before Elsom powered into the corner.  Giteau's touchline conversion looked to be a hammer blow.

But Ireland responded.  Australia's huge effort left the reserve tanks empty and the siege Ireland laid to Australia's half in the final ten had an air of inevitability about it.  Two penalties in the corner forced Kaplan to issue a team warning to the men in gold, and from the next phase, Tommy Bowe was held up in the corner.  A five-metre scrum, solid this time, and then Tomas O'Leary crabbed while delaying his pass to find the right one of the three runners.  Australia's two centres parted like curtains and through the gap steamed O'Drsicoll, Ireland's hero once again.

Man of the match:  Big kudos must go to the Wallaby front row of Alexander, Moore and Robinson for their scrumming, while Rocky Elsom delivered a fine captain's display.  Quade Cooper started very well, but faded a little.  BOD was as good as ever and Tommy Bowe and Luke Fitzgerald -- before the latter went off injured -- were both constant threats.  But running those few yards further than anyone was David Pocock, who may well have usurped George Smith for keeps with his display.

Moment of the match:  In his hundredth Test, a last gasp-try to save his team's bacon from BOD.  A Hollywood finale.

Villain of the match:  Wycliff Palu was yellow-carded for an alleged dangerous tackle, but replays bore out Palu's version of events.  No award.

The scorers:

For Ireland:Tries:  Bowe, O'Driscoll
Cons:  O'Gara 2
Pens:  O'Gara 2

For Australia:
Tries:  Mitchell, Elsom
Cons:  Giteau 2
Pens:  Giteau 2

Yellow card:  Palu, 30, dangerous tackle

Ireland:  15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (c), 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements:  16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tom Court, 18 Leo Cullen, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Jonathan Sexton, 22 Keith Earls.

Australia:  15 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 Peter Hynes, 13 Digby Ioane, 12 Quade Cooper, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Will Genia, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom (c), 5 Mark Chisholm, 4 James Horwill, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements:  16 Tatafu Polota Nau, 17 Matt Dunning, 18 Dean Mumm, 19 George Smith, 20 Luke Burgess, 21 Ryan Cross, 22 James O'Connor.

Referee:  Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Assistant referees:  Christophe Berdos (France), Andrew Small (England)
TMO:  Geoff Warren (England)

England limp past the Pumas

It was the win they needed, but it will sting like a loss.  The performance that led to England's dismal 16-9 win over Argentina at Twickenham on Saturday made the rabble that succumbed to Australia look like world beaters.

A litany of handling errors, poor decisions and wonky white set-pieces was punctuated by a late try from Matt Banahan and four swings of Jonny Wilkinson's left leg.  And that was just enough for the purple turtles.

Despite the new strip there was no disguising the curious inadequacies that have dogged England for far too long.

Worrying, there were also a few new ones to add to Martin Johnson's creaking in-tray:  clueless in the face of the counter-attack, absenteeism in defence and lack of wet-weather skills -- to name but three.

And, as referee Nigel Owens told England captain Steve Borthwick in no uncertain terms in one break in play, ''all the problems are coming from your scrum''.

Johnson coined a word this week -- ''tempo-ing'' -- but it looks like he didn't get around to teaching his charges how to actually effect it.  Only at the very end did they choose to up the gears.

Hell, even Wilkinson's kicking went to pot!

In hindsight, purple was actually the perfect pick for this excuse for a game:  Twickenham felt like a funeral parlour.

Such a rubbishing of England's performance might seem like a slight on the team that they beat.  It is not.  This vitriol is rooted in the injustice of the situation:  the best side did not win today.

The Pumas were everything their hosts were not:  confident, daring, canny and organised.

Although the weather was quintessentially English, it was the South Americans who made a better fist of the conditions.  The ball -- a virtual soap in the hands of the locals -- swept through the Pumas' paws with aplomb.

Let us not forget that, like England, Argentina have been hit hard by injuries.  Yet unlike England, they are unable to fill the breaches with seasoned pros.

The bare bones of the matter is that amateurs almost pipped England at Twickenham after less than a week of prep.  It doesn't get much worse than that.

Johnson made three changes to the spine of the England team in the hope of injecting some urgency and dynamism into the performance, with Paul Hodgson given a first Test start at scrum-half while James Haskell returned at number eight and Dylan Hartley at hooker.

Whilst Wilkinson's tactical kicking was disappointing, he did stroke England into the lead with a sublime drop-goal after setting up the chance with a huge tackle on the visiting captain, the immense Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe.

As the barrage of kicking continued, England earned their first real opening when Lobbe fumbled a steepling kick under pressure from tireless Lewis Moody, and Mark Cueto broke clear -- but his top gear wasn't enough to shake off Horacio Agulla.

Despite missing so many key creative players it was Argentina who showed the most inclination to attack.

Martin Rodriguez shaved the post with a drop-goal attempt but drew Argentina level with a penalty after Tim Payne was penalised for not binding at the scrum.

And Rodriguez then drilled a second effort wide after Haskell was penalised for being offside, but Wilkinson responded with a successful long-range strike to nudge England back into the lead.

Monye, a stand-in full-back for England, was struggling badly as Fernandez continued to pepper him with high balls.

The Pumas had clocked it, but it took until half-time before England had the sense to switch him to his preferred position of wing and drop Cueto back to fifteen.

When Monye's third attempted catch went to ground, Haskell compounded the problem by diving on the ball and conceding another penalty which Rodriguez accepted gratefully.

The Twickenham crowd of nearly 78,000 was growing restless.  Paper planes rained down on the pitch in a palpable demonstration of boredom.  When Monye successfully claimed a wayward drop-goal effort from Fernandez he was greeted by ironic jeers from the stands.

Shane Geraghty was then booed for kicking the ball straight into touch instead of launching an attack.

When England were again penalised at the scrum, Rodriguez edged Argentina ahead with a third penalty, but the Pumas conceded almost immediately.

Wilkinson drew the scores level at half-time, but England departed for the break to more booing.

Despite what must have surely been a 'hairdryer' session under the stands, England didn't fare much better after the break.

The locals' kick-chase was almost non-existent -- with Moody the only player haring around and he managed to get half a block on Agulla's clearance.

Wilkinson did well to spot Argentina offside and exploited it with a grubber kick to earn the penalty, but he drilled it wide from 40 metres out.

England received another let-off when Rodriguez missed from a similar range and Cueto took it on his shoulders to inject some pace into the game with a confident take and counter-attack.

Cueto's angled kick forward was chased again by Moody and the pressure forced Argentina to gift England a lineout ten metres from the line.

But there was little invention on England's attack and Cueto was chopped down by a ruthless tackle from Lucas Borges and the attack was snuffed out.

Finally, with ten minutes remaining, England managed to create one ounce of the dynamic rugby they had promised from the outset.

Haskell sparked the move with a midfield break, Steve Borthwick off-loaded and the ball was spread wide via Cueto and Moody for Banahan to score in the corner.

The giant Bath winger -- otherwise anonymous -- touched down under the posts for his third try in four Tests (and all scored against the Pumas) to allow the unusually wayward Wilkinson to slot a simple conversion.

Argentina piled on the pressure at the death in search of the draw, but England managed to hold on.

Next up for England:  the All Blacks.  Look away now.

Man of the match:  The industrious Lewis Moody is the only Englishman who deserves a mention in dispatches.  Were the likes of Danny Hipkiss, Louis Deacon and Tom Croft even on the pitch?  The South Americans were impressive to a man, with Santiago Fernandez, Alfredo Lalanne and Horacio Agulla indicating that the Four Nations might not be a three-horse race that many expect it to be.  Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe was his usual brilliant self, but we'll thrust the honours towards the old warhorse who goes by the name of Patricio Albacete.  Immense in the tight and dynamic in the loose.  He was all the things that England promised to be.

Moment of the match:  This match will not live long in the memory.  At least we hope not.  But perhaps the booing at half-time might come to be remembered as a turning point in Martin Johnson's tenure as England boss.  His new priority is to simply win back the fans.

Villian of the match:  Dylan Hartley and Mario Ledesma had a couple of tiny tussles, but the skullduggery ended there.  In fact, a little more niggle might have helped proceedings.  No award.

The scorers:

For England:
Try:  Banahan
Con:  Wilkinson
Pens:  Wilkinson 2
Drop:  Wilkinson

For Argentina:
Pens:  Rodriguez 3

The teams:

England:  15 Ugo Monye, 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Danny Hipkiss, 12 Shane Geraghty, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Paul Hodgson, 8 James Haskell, 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Steve Borthwick (c), 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Duncan Bell, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Tim Payne.
Replacements:  16 Steve Thompson, 17 Paul Doran-Jones, 18 Courtney Lawes, 19 Joe Worsley, 20 Danny Care, 21 Andy Goode, 22 Ayoola Erinle.

Argentina:  15 Horacio Agulla, 14 Lucas Borges, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Martin Rodriguez, 11 Mauro Comuzzi, 10 Santiago Fernandez, 9 Alfredo Lalanne, 8 Juan Fernandez Lobbe (c), 7 Alfredo Abadie, 6 Tomas Leonardi, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Esteban Lozada, 3 Martin Scelzo, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements:  16 Alberto Vernet Basualdo, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Manuel Carizza, 19 Alejandro Campos, 20 Agustin Figuerola, 21 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 22 Federico Martin Aramburu.

Referee:  Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees:  Alan Lewis (Ireland), Peter Allan (Scotland)
TMO:  Hugh Watkins (Wales)

All Blacks survive at San Siro

New Zealand avoided a potential European banana skin on Saturday in an historic 20-6 victory over Italy.

Despite holding a two-score cushion with just eight minutes remaining, the second-string visitors were under serious pressure which arguably should have translated into a penalty try after several scrum resets close to the line.

The passionate crowd were baying for official Stuart Dickinson to make the short jog under the poles.  He did not and the All Blacks escaped.

In the end the 80 minutes did not match the occasion though.  Welcome banners for New Zealand added to the warm reception during pre-game, which they had also received all week in the fashion capital.  However, they seemed to find the atmosphere and expectation a little overwhelming in a disjointed overall effort.

Players who were handed chances to impress such as Mike Delany, Tanerau Latimer and Ben Smith struggled in their quest to impress ahead of facing England next week, with the latter fumbling his first touch in the full Test jumper.

Bledisloe Cup holders New Zealand were also comprehensively beaten up front and in the aforementioned scrums by Leicester's destroyer Martin Castrogiovanni alongside experienced loosehead Salvatore Perugini.

In the middle of that grizzly duo was an in-form hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini, who proved a constant livewire for Italy and was slighly more deserving than opposite number Corey Flynn in claiming the only try of the first period..scratch that, the game.

It took the visitors a full 26 minutes to cross for that five-pointer, which was slightly against the run of play after Sitiveni Sivivatu delicately shipped the ball out to his hooker wide out.

That was the only attacking highlight of the first 40 but the overall moment came when, on two occasions, Italy demolished the All Black scrum.  It was quite a sight that pleased captain Sergio Parisse no end.

Many had predicted a strong opening from the home side, who were being cheered on by such names as soccer veterans Clarence Seedorf and Alessandro Del Piero.

A single penalty goal from Craig Gower on four minutes due to Wyatt Crockett being penalised at the set-piece got the crowd upright.  However, for all their spirit and the leadership of Parisse, Italy were unfortunate to find themselves 3-14 down at the break.

The neutral was predicting a closely-fought opening to this one before the opening of the floodgates when Graham Henry rolled on the likes of Richie McCaw, Andrew Hore, Jimmy Cowan and Mils Muliaina.  But that proved not to be the case as it was in fact the hosts who grew as the game wore on - the territorial statistics over the final 40 minutes act as proof, Italy had 60 per cent.

But for all their field position they lacked any threatening ideas under the playmaking nous of Gower, who had an off-day in general play.  One would imagine the New Zealand of old to have subsequently made them pay.

Not so, as Luke McAlister missed more than he made from the tee in Milan, with the width of a post summing up the former Sale man's own luck with the boot.

But the centre finally found his range on 44 minutes before Parisse lifted his troops for the final ten minutes.  How they responded from being 6-20 behind.

Italy set up camp five metres from the black whitewash and were gunning for a score that would reward the 77,000 spectators who had come out to pack the San Siro.

Wave after wave of attacks from their imperious scrum had Dickinson pressured to award them seven points in what was a fitting finish in this special Test fixture.  But Dickinson pooped the party.

Man of the match:  Leonardo Ghiraldini was strong during the first period but the overall performance of Sergio Parisse was once again unparalleled.  The Paris number eight got the better of opposite number Rodney So'oialo and proved his ever-growing global reputation with an excellent 80 minutes as leader.

Moment of the match:  The final eight minutes in Milan summed up the spirit of the Azzurri.  Close to ten scrum resets almost gave them a much-needed seven points but it wasn't to be.  80,000 stood to applaud the effort and Nick Mallett will be oh so proud of his pack.

Villain of the match:  No one really stands out in either camp.

The scorers:

For Italy:
Pens:  Gower 2

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Flynn
Pens:  McAlister 5

Italy:  15 Luke McLean, 14 Kaine Robertson, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Craig Gower, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Quintin Geldenhuys, 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements:  16 Fabio Ongaro, 17 Ignacio Rouyet, 18 Antonio Pavanello, 19 Simone Favaro, 20 Simon Picone, 21 Kristopher Burton, 22 Alberto Sgarbi

New Zealand:  15 Cory Jane, 14 Ben Smith, 13 Tamati Ellison, 12 Luke McAlister, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Mike Delany, 9 Andy Ellis, 8 Rodney So'oialo, 7 Tanerau Latimer, 6 Liam Messam, 5 Anthony Boric, 4 Tom Donnelly, 3 Neemia Tialata, 2 Corey Flynn, 1 Wyatt Crockett.
Replacements:  16 Andrew Hore, 17 John Afoa, 18 Jason Eaton, 19 Richie McCaw, 20 Jimmy Cowan, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Mils Muliaina.

Referee:  Stuart Dickinson (Australia)
Assistant referees:  Alain Rolland (Ireland), David Changleng (Scotland)
Television match official:  Tim Hayes (Wales)
Assessor:  Michel Lamoulie (France)

Scotland ease past Fiji

Scotland began their November Test series -- and Andy Robinson's tenure -- with a comfortable 23-10 win over Fiji on Saturday.

An early second-half try -- tinged with controversy -- by Graeme Morrison put the Scots in a winning position, but despite the promise shown in the first half there might be a mild concern that the team failed to kick on and close out the win their set-piece superiority deserved.

They might see it as progress -- Scotland had lost six of the last nine coming into this after all -- but there's still a lot to do.  Having worked themselves in good fashion to a 16-0 lead, Scotland conceded a soft try and went thoroughly into their shells, briefly peeking out to score a second try and then retreating as though caught in the glare of headlights.

Some of the first half was top notch from the Scots.  There were some clever well-worked moves coming off the back of an utterly dominant set piece, not least the opening try.  But the number of balls turned over and the comparatively high penalty count negated the momentum.

In the second half, the backs just couldn't seem to find the right angles to run and ran out of ideas far too fast, while the forwards seemed unable to tidy up the rucks.  The defence held firm well enough, but also allowed the Fijians to build up momentum too quickly.  Fiji were unable to punish, but a better opponent would have cleaned up.

Fiji will also not be entirely satisfied.  All too rarely did their fabled hands begin to work and put players into space, the balance the team likes to strike between sevens and the full game tilted too far towards the latter;  not their forte.  Runners took the ball into contact but the support was slow -- understandable given only three days of chaotic preparation but they'll have to analyse and reflect that a little more adventure could have reaped rewards.

One move in particular which took them to 2m away from the Scots' line, was begging for a glory finish.  Instead the forwards took the ball on around the fringes a couple of phases too many and had it wrapped up.  That won the Fijians a scrum, frequently a good source of Scottish possession.

After finding their feet during the first ten minutes and taking the lead with a Phil Godman penalty, Scotland struck first with a super try.  Johnnie Beattie popped the ball down to Chris Cusiter off a line-out and the scrum-half scampered through, offloading to Beattie who took two players over the line with him.  Those two players included Josefa Domolailai who subsequently left the field with an oxygen mask after sustaining a horrible leg injury.

Further penalties followed from Godman, as well as one that struck the post, as Scotland exploited their scrumming superiority mercilessly, but Fiji built up a couple of good heads of steam as well, and scored a sucker-punch try just before half time.  A series of rucks near the Scottish line built the momentum before the pass went out to an unopposed Vereneki Goneva for a simple finish, but questions will be asked as to why Simon Danielli chose that moment to cut inside on defence and leave Goneva free.

Half-time at 16-7 was comfortable enough and within five minutes of the second half, Graeme Morrison -- benefitting from a monstrous knock-on right in the blind spot of the officials -- crashed over under the posts, with Godman making it 23-7.

That should have been a catalyst, no matter how hard the Fijians fought.  The blue scrum was shoving the white eight from loosehead to tight and the line-out was solid, while poor Josh Matavesi at full-back for Fiji was having a nervous game.  All the requisite weak spots were there, but Scotland got sloppy, falling over rucks, resorting to illegal scrummaging to hammer home their advantage and looking a little lackadaisical in support and on the hoof.

Nicky Little banged over a penalty for Fiji on the hour to bring them to within two scores, but the Fijians got tired as the game petered out a little.  Only Napolioni Nalaga looked capable of breaking a line and causing danger, but he was not given enough time running with the ball.

With six minutes to go, Fiji had worked their way to the line and an overlap -- with Nalaga on the end of it -- was begging.  It could have been a very uncomfortable final few minutes for Scotland, but the Fiji forwards took the wrong option, winning only a scrum, from which they lost the ball.  A win for Scotland, but lots to do.

Man of the match:  Not a whole great deal of contenders, but while he was on the pitch, Chris Cusiter showed plenty of flashes and led the side ably in terms of both personnel and game play.

Moment of the match:  Without a doubt Scotland's opening try, which should have inspired Scotland to bigger and better.

Villain of the match:  Not a jot.  No flying Fijian tackles -- indeed the highest tackle of the day was by Alasdair Strokosch!

The scorers:

For Scotland:
Tries:  Beattie, Morrison
Cons:  Godman 2
Pens:  Godman 3

For Fiji:
Try:  Goneva
Con:  Little
Pen:  Little

Scotland:  15 Rory Lamont, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Alex Grove, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Simon Danielli, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Chris Cusiter (c), 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 John Barclay, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Alastair Kellock, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Moray Low, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements:  16 Dougie Hall, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Jason White, 19 Richie Vernon, 20 Mike Blair, 21 Chris Paterson, 22 Nick De Luca.

Fiji:  15 Josh Matavesi, 14 Vereneki Goneva, 13 Gabirieli Lovobalavu, 12 Seremaia Bai (c), 11 Napolioni Nalaga, 10 Nicky Little, 9 Moses Rauluni, 8 Asaeli Boko, 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Josefa Domolailai, 5 Ifereimi Rawaqa, 4 Wame Lewaravu, 3 Deacon Manu, 2 Vili Veikoso, 1 Alefoso Yalayalatabua.
Replacements:  16 Graham Dewes, 17 Sereli Ledua, 18 Leone Nakarawa, 19 Samu Bola, 20 Waisale Vatuvoka, 21 Jonetani Ratu, 22 Nasoni Roko.

Referee:  Chris White (England)
Assistants:  Carlo Damasco (Italy), Simon McDowell (Ireland)
TMO:  Guillio De Santis (Italy)