Ireland 44 Romania 14

Captain Dion O'Cuinneagain scored his first international try and fullback Conor O'Shea touched down twice to guide Ireland to a 44-14 victory over Romania in their World Cup Group E match at half-empty Lansdowne Road on Friday night.

The win sealed Ireland second place in Group E behind unbeaten Australia and earned them a quarter-final play-off in Lens, France, on Wednesday.

The Irish will play either Samoa, Argentina or Canada depending on the result of Saturday's Japan-Argentina match.

Romania were eliminated after one win and two losses in the group stage.

Flanker Andy Ward and scrum-half Tom Tierney also scored tries for Ireland, while fly-half Eric Elwood kicked five conversions and two penalties for a personal tally of 16 points -- and a flawless night of goal-kicking.  Replacement Brian O'Driscoll landed a late drop goal.

Ireland responded well to the do-or-die situation.  "We knew that if we didn't win we would have been packing our bags -- and that would have been unthinkable," said O'Shea.  "It was solid and we got our confidence back after the loss to Australia, but it wasn't vintage stuff by any means.  "We are happy, but we know there is still a lot of work to do."

Ireland lost prop Peter Clohessy (back) and wing Justin Bishop (hamstring) a couple of hours before kickoff but their side was still strong enough to hold off a committed Romanian combination who were beaten but far from disgraced.  "I'm proud of my players," said Romanian technical director John Phillips.  "We went out and competed -- we gave it a go."  South African-born back-rower O'Cuinneagain, a late inclusion in a half-strength Ireland team, scored his side's first try after just six minutes -- finishing off a superb 50-metre passing movement.  Elwood converted to make it 7-0.

Elwood added a 13th-minute penalty and when Ward burst through some feeble defence two minutes later -- and his try was converted by Elwood -- it was 17-0 and the Irish were in control.

Romanian scrum-half Petre Mitu landed penalties in the 18th and 25th minutes before O'Shea grabbed the third Irish try in the 33rd minute after the ball had been recycled intelligently.

Elwood again converted and then landed an injury-time penalty to make it 27-6 at the break.

O'Shea's second try came five minutes into the second half when he collected a fine pass from Elwood to go over -- and the fly-half again converted.

When Romania lost inspirational skipper Tudor Constantin to injury their hopes had all but evaporated.

Mitu landed a third penalty in the 57th minute when it might have been smarter to take a tap and the Irish immediately went up to the other end for Tierney to scamper over the line.  Elwood again converted.

The job done, Ireland coach Warren Gatland was able to pull off O'Shea and Tierney with 20 minutes still remaining.  Elwood, too, left the field early with a cut head -- a sad finish after such an influential performance.

The Romanians got a consolation try with five minutes left when wing Cristian Sauan scampered over in the right corner after his teammates used quick hands after a five-metre scrum win.

Ireland still had the last word, however, with O'Driscoll's injury-time drop goal.

The Teams:

Ireland:  1 Paul Wallace, 2 Ross Nesdale, 3 Justin Fitzpatrick, 4 Paddy Johns, 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 6 Kieron Dawson, 7 Andy Ward, 8 Dion O'Cuinneagain (c), 9 Tom Tierney, 10 Eric Elwood, 11 Matt Mostyn, 12 Jonathan Bell, 13 Mike Mullins, 14 Jimmy Topping, 15 Conor O'Shea
Reserves:  Jeremy Davidson, Gordon D'Arcy, Angus McKeen, Brian O'Meara, Brian O'Driscoll, Keith Wood, Alan Quinlan

Romania:  1 Razvan Mavrodin, 2 Petre Balan, 3 Constantin Stan, 4 Tiberiu Brinza, 5 Tudor Constantin (c), 6 Alin Petrache, 7 Erdinci Septar, 8 Catalin Draguceanu, 9 Petre Mitu, 10 Roland Vusec, 11 Cristian Sauan, 12 Gabriel Brezoianu, 13 Romeo Gontineac, 14 Gheorghe Solomie, 15 Mihai Vioreanu
Reserves:  Marius Iacob, Daniel Chiriac, Florin Corodeanu, Nicolae Dragos Dima, Radu Fugigi, Laurentiu Rotaru, Ionut Tofan

Attendance:  33000
Referee:  Campsall b

Points Scorers:

Ireland
Tries:  O'Cuinneagain D. 1, O'Shea C.M.P. 2, Tierney T. 1, Ward A.J. 1
Conv:  Elwood E.P. 5
Pen K.:  Elwood E.P. 2
Drop G.:  O'Driscoll B. 1

Romania
Tries:  Sauan D.C. 1
Pen K.:  Mitu P. 3

Canada 72 Namibia 11

Winless Canada, determined to go home with at least one win, ended their Group C campaign with a 72-11 thrashing of Namibia -- a personal triumph for fly-half Gareth Rees who ended his fourth World Cup with a 100 percent record in kicks at goal and 49 points.

While Rees and his side, whose aspirations to make the quarter-final play-offs nosedived with Wales' defeat by Samoa earlier on Thursday, could feel proud of their display, in which they ran in nine tries.  The one sour note was the sending off of flanker Danny Baugh for stamping early in the second-half.

The Africans, who themselves were fortunate to end with a full complement of players after Arthur Samuelson's deliberate high tackle led to hooker Mark Cardinal having to go off, reacted to Baugh's dirty play by scoring a try through captain Quinn Hough, his 10th try in 73 appearances.

The Canadians, who made the quarter-finals in 1991, dampened down any hopes of a Namibian comeback by running in another try as a terrible foul-up in the Africans defence led to Kyle Nicholls running in his second touch down.

However, it was replacement fullback Bobby Ross who scored their best try, finishing off a seven man move with a spectacular catch from Winston Stanley's flicked-on pass -- Stanley added another minutes later and Rod Snow got his second of the evening on fulltime with Stanley running in a final one in injury-time.

Namibia's player of the tournament Leandre van Dyk had opened the score with a third minute penalty but Canada hit back as their find of the competition, scrum-half Morgan Williams, burrowed over from five metres out for his third try in the group stage.

The Africans self-destructed two minutes later as fullback Glovin van Wyk's pass was intercepted by centre Kyle Nicholls who raced away to touch down under the posts.

The 32-year-old Rees, playing probably his swansong match in the World Cup, and van Dyk exchanged penalties before Canadian veteran Al Charron beat two tackles to get their third try and his seventh in 54 appearances for his country.

The teams:

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

Namibia:  1 Joodt Opperman, 2 Hugo Horn, 3 Eben Smith, 4 Heino Senekal, 5 Pieter Steyn, 6 Quinn Hough (c), 7 Thys Van Rooyen, 8 Sean Furter, 9 Riaan Jantjies, 10 Johan Zaayman, 11 Attie Samuelson, 12 Schalk Van Der Merwe, 13 Francois Van Rensburg, 14 Lean Van Dyk, 15 Glovin Van Wyk
Reserves:  Andries Blaauw, Herman Lintvelt, Johannes Theron
Unused:  Dirk Farmer, 1FI1, Lukas Holtzhausen, Ronaldo Pedro

Attendance:  28000
Referee:  Cole a

Points Scorers:

Canada
Tries:  Charron A.J. 1, Nichols K. 2, Ross R.P. 1, Snow R.G.A. 2, Stanley W.U. 2, Williams M. 1
Conv:  Rees G.L. 9
Pen K.:  Rees G.L. 3

Namibia
Tries:  Hough Q. 1
Pen K.:  Van Dyk L. 2

New Zealand 101 Italy 3

A rampaging second string New Zealand ran over hapless Italy 101-3 in their Group B clash here on Thursday to record the highest score of the tournament to date.

With only four players from the team that beat England on show, New Zealand confirmed that no matter what team they put out, they are a match for anyone.

Full-back Jeff Wilson wrote himself into the All Black record books by running in three tries to make himself the country's highest try scorer, overtaking the 35 scored by legendary winger John Kirwan.  "It was really exciting for me.  My mum was in the stand.  To be up there with people like John Kirwan is something special.  The guys got excited and it was all ours.  It was pleasure to be out there with them," said Wilson.

Out-half Tony Brown, playing in his seventh Test scored more points -- 36 -- than he had in his previous six appearances added together.  He also scored his first try in an All Black jersey when he intercepted a loose pass in the first-half.

Also stamping his authority was Jonah Lomu, the destroyer of England, who showed he was as good a forward as he was back.

In the dying minutes of the first half Lomu came into the scrum, picked up the ball like a true number eight and charged over from 10 meters out, dragging three Italians over with him.  In the second-half he collected the ball on the wing and ran half the length of the field with no one to stop him piling on the misery for a shell-shocked Italian side.

It also made Lomu the greatest try scorer in World Cup history, moving him ahead of previous record hold Rory Underwood of England.  Lomu, clearly with more to come, has now scored 12 World Cup tries.

Italy had hoped to test the All Blacks and prove that they derserved their place in the new Six Nations next year.  Instead, they found themselves totally outclassed by New Zealand's second fifteen.  Flanker Dylan Mika, captain Taine Randall, Daryl Gibson, Scott Robinson, Christian Cullen, Glen Osborne and hooker Mark Hammett all went over for tries.

Italy's best moment came in the opening minute of the match when they managed to get to within less than a meter of the New Zealand line thanks to a clever attack launched by full-back Matt Pini but then they wasted the opportunity by giving away a penalty.

The desperate Italians tried to halt that New Zealand attack by going offside when the opportunity arose but Scottish referee Jim Fleming was having none of it.  In the end he warned the Italians that he would send off the next offender if it continued.

Italy's only points came from the boot of their kicking machine Diego Dominguez when New Zealand were caught going over the ball early in the first-half.

New Zealand:  1 Craig Dowd, 2 Mark Hammett, 3 Greg Feek, 4 Ian Jones, 5 Royce Willis, 6 Andrew Blowers, 7 Dylan Mika, 8 Taine Randell (c), 9 Byron Kelleher, 10 Tony Brown, 11 Jonah Lomu, 12 Pita Alatini, 13 Daryl Gibson, 14 Glen Osborne, 15 Jeff Wilson
Reserves:  Robin Brooke, Christian Cullen, Rhys Duggan, Kees Meeuws, Scott Robertson
Unused:  Andrew Mehrtens, Anton Oliver

Italy:  1 Andrea Castellani, 2 Andrea Moretti, 3 Alejandro Moreno, 4 Carlo Checchinato, 5 Mark Giacheri, 6 Massimo Giovanelli (c), 7 Stefano Saviozzi, 8 Carlo Caione, 9 Alessandro Troncon, 10 Diego Dominguez, 11 Paolo Vaccari, 12 Sandro Ceppolino, 13 Cristian Stoica, 14 Nicolas Zisti, 15 Matt Pini
Reserves:  Orazio Arancio, Walter Cristofoletto, Francesco Mazzariol, Nicola Mazzucato, Alessandro Moscardi, Franco Properzi-Curti
Unused:  Giampiero Mazzi

Attendance:  22032
Referee:  Fleming j

Points Scorers:

New Zealand
Tries:  Brown T.E. 1, Cullen C.M. 1, Gibson D.P.E. 1, Hammett M.G. 1, Lomu J.T. 2, Mika D.G. 1, Osborne G.M. 2, Randell T.C. 1, Robertson S.M. 1, Wilson J.W. 3
Conv:  Brown T.E. 11
Pen K.:  Brown T.E. 3

Italy
Pen K.:  Dominguez D. 1

Wales 31 Samoa 38

Samoa pulled off the biggest upset in the 1999 World Cup when they sent host nation Wales spiralling to a 38-31 defeat in a dramatic Group D match here on Thursday.

In a carbon-copy of their stunning 16-13 defeat to the Pacific islanders in the 1991 finals, Wales were punished for sloppy defending as the Samoans ran in five tries to silence the 72,000 capacity home crowd.

Graham Henry's side laid siege to the Samoan line in the dying minutes but heroic defence kept them at bay, sparking scenes of wild celebrations amongst the Samoans at the final whistle.

The defeat overshadowed the achievement of Wales fly-half Neil Jenkins who wrote himself into the record books by becoming the greatest points scorer in the history of international rugby.  "We are very disappointed," said Wales coach Graham Henry.  "We made far too many mistakes but I think massive credit and respect should be given to the Samoans.  They played superbly -- often with limited possession.  "It's not the end of the world and we will learn from the experience.  We just have to take it on the chin."

Samoan captain Pat Lam, whose side had performed so poorly in Sunday's 32-16 defeat by Argentina, said memories of 1991 had fired his side.  "This is a very special day," said the giant number eight who plays with English club Northampton.  "You guys had all written us off and people gave us no respect, but we played with a lot of pride, a hell of alot of pride.  "The mood in the build-up to the match reminded us of 1991 and all the good luck faxes we received from back home really inspired us." The result means that the two teams will have to wait until the end of Argentina's match against Japan here on Saturday before the places for the quarter-finals and the quarter-final play-offs will be known.

Wales should still go straight to the quarter-finals -- probably against Australia back at the Millennium Stadium -- provided Argentina, who are expected to beat Japan do not score more than 70 points.

A day of Welsh celebrations seemed to lie ahead when Jenkins, level with Australia's Michael Lynagh on 911 points before the match, posted a simple conversion after Wales were awarded a penalty try early on to write himself into the record books.

The 72,000-capacity crowd in the Millennium Stadium exploded in delight and stood to hail the 28-year-old British Lion from the Welsh valleys.  But the celebrations were short-lived as the Welsh crowd realised that their team had a major battle on their hands against the crash-tackling Pacific Islanders.

It was a cruel irony that the normally metronomic Jenkins missed three penalties and a conversion that would have given Wales victory.  On a day of mixed fortunes for the man they call the "Ginger Monster", it was also his mistake early in the second period which led directly to Samoa's fourth try and restored their lead to seven points.

Wales trailed the Samoans 24-21 at half-time following two breakaway tries by fly-half Stephen Bachop in the dying minutes and an earlier close range effort from lock Lio Falaniko -- all converted by full-back Silao Leaega.  But after levelling the scores with a penalty three minutes after the turnaround, Jenkins gifted the Samoans another try as the Welsh surrendered the lead again.

His lazy pass was intercepted by Pat Lam who ran virtually the entire length of the field to score.  Leaega converted to restore Samoa's seven point lead.  Wales, though, were awarded a second penalty try after the Samoans collapsed the scrum a metre out as the Welsh drove forward.

Jenkins converted to make it 31-31 but two minutes later the Samoans went seven points clear again when Leaega muscled over in the right corner after good work by Brian Lima.  Leaga converted himself to seal another historic win.

The Teams:

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

Samoa:  1 Robbie Ale, 2 Trevor Leota, 3 Brendan Reidy, 4 Lio Falaniko, 5 Lama Tone, 6 Craig Glendinning, 7 Junior Paramore, 8 Pat Lam (c), 9 Stephen So'oilao, 10 Stephen Bachop, 11 Brian Lima, 12 George Leaupepe, 13 To'o Vaega, 14 Inga Tuigamala, 15 Silao Leaega
Reserves:  Terry Fanolua, Earl Va'a, Onehunga Matauiau Esau, Mike Mika, Semo Sititi, Sene Ta'ala
Unused:  John Clarke

Attendance:  72000
Referee:  Morrison e

Points Scorers:

Wales
Tries:  Penalty Try 2, Thomas G. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 2
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 4

Samoa
Tries:  Bachop S.J. 2, Falaniko F.L. 1, Lam P.R. 1, Leaega S. 1
Conv:  Leaega S. 5
Pen K.:  Leaega S. 1

Australia 55 United States 19

Wing Scott Staniforth marked his test debut with a brace of tries as Australia trounced the United States 55-19 in their World Cup Group E match at Thomond Park on Thursday.

It was the third straight win of the tournament for the Wallabies, who finished on top of the pool.  Going into the match already assured of a quarter-final spot, the Australians fielded a second-string side that was still far too good for the game but outgunned American part-timers.

The Australians will now play either Wales, Samoa or Argentina in the quarters in Cardiff on October 23, while the United States failed to break a World Cup winless streak that stretches back to 1987 and will go home having lost all three of their matches in the tournament.

Fly-half Stephen Larkham, hooker Michael Foley, wing Matthew Burke, flanker Tiaan Strauss, fullback Chris Latham and scrum-half Chris Whitaker also scored tries for the Aussies, while Burke kicked five conversions and a penalty and Joe Roff a conversion in what was the first international to be played in Limerick for 101 years.

The Americans, who trailed by only 12 points at half-time, responded with a try to Juan Grobler, converted by Kevin Dalzell, three penalties from Dalzell and a drop goal from David Niu.

Larkham opened the scoring after just three minutes when the Australians burst down the middle.  Larkham, who had started the move, backed up to take a pass from Jim Williams just before the line.  Burke's conversion made it 7-0.  The Australians then survived some uncomfortable moments on defence close to their own line before Burke's 13th-minute penalty made the margin 10 points.  Niu, a former Australian rugby league player, got the first points for the Eagles with a drop goal after 15 minutes but the Australians stormed back with a sparkling passing movement that saw 21-year-old wing Staniforth mark his debut with a fine try in the corner.  Burke's kick made it 17-3.

The Americans were incensed when lock Alec Parker got over the line but was ruled by referee Andrew Watson not to have touched down Good work by Whitaker, then Latham, kept out the Americans as the Wallabies scrambled in defence but wing Grobler finally scored in the corner just a couple of minutes before halftime -- and Dalzell converted.  The Australian lead was reduced to seven points -- and the Wallabies had conceded their first try of the tournament.

Five minutes into injury time, the Australians got a pushover try to Foley, although Burke's kick missed.  The Wallabies began the second half in similar vein.  First Larkham's clever kick ahead set up Staniforth's second try and then, after lock Tom Bowman had a touchdown disallowed, Burke went over in the opposite corner to make it 34-10.  The game was already over as a contest.

A trio of Dalzell penalties briefly lifted American hearts but former Springbok Strauss scored the sixth try for the Aussies with 12 minutes remaining and Burke again converted to make it 41-19.

Latham's try with seven minutes and Whitaker's in injury time rubbed salt into the American wounds and eight tries to one was a harsh indication of the gap in class between the teams.

The teams:

Australia:  1 Dan Crowley, 2 Michael Foley, 3 Rod Moore, 4 Tom Bowman, 5 Mark Connors, 6 Owen Finegan, 7 Tiaan Strauss, 8 Jim Williams, 9 Chris Whitaker, 10 Steve Larkham, 11 Matthew Burke, 12 Nathan Grey, 13 Jason Little (c), 14 Scott Staniforth, 15 Chris Latham
Reserves:  Matt Cockbain, David Giffin, Rod Kafer, Joe Roff
Unused:  George Gregan, Richard Harry, Jeremy Paul

Attendance:  13000
Referee:  Watson a

Points Scorers:

Australia
Tries:  Burke M.C. 1, Foley M.A. 1, Larkham S.J. 1, Latham C.E. 1, Staniforth S.N.G. 2, Strauss C.P. 1, Whitaker C. 1
Conv:  Burke M.C. 5, Roff J.W.C. 1
Pen K.:  Burke M.C. 1

United States
Tries:  Grobler J. 1
Conv:  Dalzell K. 1
Pen K.:  Dalzell K. 3
Drop G.:  Dalzell K. 1

Tonga 28 Italy 25

The Italian side was inconsolable at Welford Road tonight after an injury time drop-goal from Sateki Tu'ilupotu snatched a 28-25 win for Tonga, when an 80 minute penalty from Diego Dominguez looked to have earnt Italy a draw.

The Tongans started the game much the better side with Sililo Martens marshalling the game from scrum-half.  Taufahema and Tu'ipulotu both scored first half tries as Tonga went into the break 18-12 up, Diego Dominguez's four penalties keeping the Europeans in the contest.

In the second half the Italian pack took control of the game with captain Giovanelli spearheading his side's recovery.  Wing Vacarri made a number of telling breaks, as did the powerful centre Stoica.  The Tongan discipline began to slip and Dominguez punished them with a second-half penalty before hooker Moscardi crossed for a try which took the Italians into the lead.

But with 10 minutes, left Tonga launched a series of attacks which finally broke the brave Italian defence and Fatani plundered what appeared to be a match winning try with 5 minutes left.  Little did he, or anyone else at Welford Road know what drama was still to come.

Tonga:  1 Ta'u Fainga'anuku, 2 Latiume Maka, 3 Ngalu Taufo'ou, 4 Ben Hur Kivalu, 5 Falamani Mafi, 6 David Edwards, 7 Jonathan Koloi, 8 Kati Tu'ipulotu, 9 Sililo Martens, 10 Brian Wooley, 11 Tauna'holo Taufahema, 12 Semi Taupeaafe, 13 'Elisi Vunipola (c), 14 Epi Taione, 15 Sateki Tuipulotu
Reserves:  David Tiueti, Isi Fatani, Isi Tapueluelu, Matt Te Pou
Unused:  Kuli Faletau, Damien Penesini, Sione Tuipulotu

Italy:  1 Andrea Castellani, 2 Alessandro Moscardi, 3 Alejandro Moreno, 4 Carlo Checchinato, 5 Mark Giacheri, 6 Massimo Giovanelli (c), 7 Stefano Saviozzi, 8 Carlo Caione, 9 Alessandro Troncon, 10 Diego Dominguez, 11 Fabio Roselli, 12 Sandro Ceppolino, 13 Cristian Stoica, 14 Paolo Vaccari, 15 Matt Pini
Reserves:  Andrea Moretti, Nicola Mazzucato
Unused:  Orazio Arancio, Walter Cristofoletto, Francesco Mazzariol, Giampiero Mazzi, Franco Properzi-Curti

Attendance:  10244
Referee:  Mchugh d

Points Scorers:

Tonga
Tries:  Fatani I. 1, Taufahema T. 1, Tuipulotu S. 1
Conv:  Tuipulotu S. 2
Pen K.:  Tuipulotu S. 2
Drop G.:  Tuipulotu S. 1

Italy
Tries:  Moscardi A. 1
Conv:  Dominguez D. 1
Pen K.:  Dominguez D. 6

Argentina 32 Samoa 16

A brilliant second-half kicking performance by Gonzalo Quesada saw Argentina overcome a 13-point deficit for a crucial 32-16 win over Samoa in a rain-swept Group D match.

The 25-year-old fly-half struck seven penalties and a drop goal to add to a first half penalty as the Pumas came from 16-3 down at half-time to all but make sure of a place in the play-offs.

The Argentinian, nicknamed "Speedy Gonzales" because of the length of time he takes with his kicks, was composure itself as he slotted nine of his ten attempts at the posts.  His deadly accuracy saw the Pumas make a remarkable recovery in a match the big-hitting Samoans threatened to run away with as they adapted better to the heavy rain that made handling and footwork difficult.

Allejandro Allub scored Argentina's only try -- their first of the World Cup -- when the burly lock barged over from close range in the 66th minute.

Just 20 minutes earlier, the Pacific islanders seemed to have a World Cup play-off place in their sights after a try by flanker Junior Paramore and two penalties and a conversion from full-back Silao Leaega gave them a 13-point cushion at the turnaround.

In the first half, the Pumas, narrowly beaten 23-18 by Wales in the World Cup curtain-raiser, spurned a golden chance to open the scoring in the 11th minute when centre Eduardo Simone found a gap in the Samoan defence.

In a two-on-one situation a try seemed a certainty but with a clear run to the line from 10 yards winger Diego Albanese spilled a simple pass from Simone.

With the rain clealy affecting the players' handling and footing, the first points of the match did not arrive until the 19th minute when Leaega slotted a penalty from wide on the left.

The Samoans went 10-0 in front soon afterwards when powerhouse centre Va'aiga Tuigamala punched a hole though the Argentinian midfield to give Paramore a clear run under the posts.

Quesada reduced the deficit with a penalty before Leaega responded with two of his own to give Samoa the edge heading into the second period.  But it was a different story after the break as Gonzalez made the most of the Samoans' increasing ill-discipline with as good a kicking performance as any seen in the tournament so far.

The Teams:

Argentina:  1 Omar Hasan Jalil, 2 Mario Ledesma Arocena, 3 Mauricio Reggiardo, 4 Alejandro Allub, 5 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Rolando Martin, 7 Santiago Phelan, 8 Gonzalo Longo Elia, 9 Agustin Pichot, 10 Gonzalo Quesada, 11 Diego Albanese, 12 Lisandro Arbizu (c), 13 Eduardo Simone, 14 Octavio Bartolucci, 15 Manuel Contepomi
Reserves:  Gonzalo Camardon, Miguel Ruiz, Martin Scelzo
Unused:  Agustin Canalda, Felipe Contepomi, Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, Lucas Ostiglia

Samoa:  1 Robbie Ale, 2 Trevor Leota, 3 Brendan Reidy, 4 Opeta Palepoi, 5 Lama Tone, 6 Junior Paramore, 7 Sene Ta'ala, 8 Pat Lam (c), 9 Stephen So'oilao, 10 Stephen Bachop, 11 Brian Lima, 12 George Leaupepe, 13 Inga Tuigamala, 14 Afato So'oalo, 15 Silao Leaega
Reserves:  Isaac Fea'unati, Onehunga Matauiau Esau, Mike Mika, Kalolo Toleafoa, Tanner Vili
Unused:  John Clarke, To'o Vaega

Attendance:  11000
Referee:  Erickson w

Points Scorers:

Argentina
Tries:  Allub A. 1
Pen K.:  Quesada G. 8
Drop G.:  Quesada G. 1

Samoa
Tries:  Paramore P.J. 1
Conv:  Leaega S. 1
Pen K.:  Leaega S. 3

Romania 27 United States 25

Despite a last-minute fightback by the United States, Romania held on long enough to record their first ever World Cup victory at Lansdowne Road in the Pool E clash.

In the early stages of the match it had been the USA who looked the stronger side with their skipper Dan Lyle, one of the few professional players in the Eagles ranks, crashing over for a try after a protracted period of American pressure.

But not long after his try, the influential flanker left the field with a shoulder injury and was replaced by Shaun Paga.  With their captain sidelined, the USA lost some of their composure that allowed the Romanians to edge their way back into the match.

The Eagles took the lead with a penalty from scrum-half Kevin Dalzell after just 12 minutes.  But that lead was to be short-lived as veteran centre Gheorghe Solomie broke through for a try that went unconverted.

Immediately after the break, the USA added a new urgency to their player, powering to another try through wing Brian Hightower after some brilliant inter-handling between the backs and forwards.

But this score seemed to galvanise the Romanians who began playing an excellent tactical game, pinning the USA back into their own half with a combination of forward power and the deft kicking of No.9 Petre Mitu.

Tries from skipper Tudor Constantin and Adrian Petrache maintained Romania's lead and the score as poised at 27-20 in the final frantic few minutes.

The USA mounted a furious last resort attack which resulted in fullback Kurt Shuman going over in the left-hand corner but Kevin Dalzell was unable to convert the try and Romania held on until the final whistle.

The Teams:

Romania:  1 Razvan Mavrodin, 2 Petre Balan, 3 Constantin Stan, 4 Tiberiu Brinza, 5 Tudor Constantin, 6 Alin Petrache, 7 Erdinci Septar, 8 Catalin Draguceanu, 9 Petre Mitu, 10 Roland Vusec, 11 Cristian Sauan, 12 Gabriel Brezoianu, 13 Romeo Gontineac, 14 Gheorghe Solomie, 15 Mihai Vioreanu
Reserves:  Daniel Chiriac, Florin Corodeanu, Nicolae Dragos Dima
Unused:  Marius Iacob, Radu Fugigi, Laurentiu Rotaru, Ionut Tofan

United States:  1 Ray Lehner, 2 Tom Billups, 3 George Sucher, 4 Luke Gross, 5 Alec Parker, 6 Dan Lyle (c), 7 Tasi Mo'unga, 8 Rob Lumkong, 9 Kevin Dalzell, 10 David Niu, 11 Vaea Anitoni, 12 Juan Grobler, 13 Mark Scharrenberg, 14 Brian Hightower, 15 Kurt Shuman
Reserves:  Joe Clayton, Dave Hodges, Kirk Khasigian, Shaun Paga, Tomasi Takau, Richard Tardits
Unused:  UST8

Attendance:  3000
Referee:  Fleming j

Points Scorers

Romania
Tries:  Constantin T. 1, Petrache A.A. 1, Solomie G.L. 2
Conv:  Mitu P. 2
Pen K.:  Mitu P. 1

United States
Tries:  Hightower B. 1, Lyle D.J. 1, Shuman K.D. 1
Conv:  Dalzell K. 2
Pen K.:  Dalzell K. 2

Fiji 38 Canada 22

Fiji were thoroughly good value for their lunchtime victory over a dull Canadian team.

Despite going 10 points up within the first quarter of an hour, the Canadians never had the answers for a more creative and determined Fijian side.

Both teams had an equal share of the ball and position but the Fijian back line used the ball to greater effect to win the try count 4-1 and record a thoroughly deserved victory, setting up a Group C decider against the French next week.

The one blot on the Fijian record book was the last minute dismissal of Vunibaka for a needless but obvious headbut.

The Teams:

Fiji:  1 Dan Rouse, 2 Greg Smith (c), 3 Joeli Veitayaki, 4 Emori Katalau, 5 Simon Raiwalui, 6 Ilivasi Tamanivalu Tabua, 7 Setareki Tawake Naivaluwaqa, 8 Alfi Mocelutu Vuivau, 9 Jacob Rauluni, 10 Nicky Little, 11 Fero Lasagavibau, 12 Viliame Satala, 13 Waisake Sotutu, 14 Marika Vunibaka, 15 Alfred Uluinayau
Reserves:  Waisale Serevi, Apisai Naevo, Mosese Rauluni, Koli Sewabu
Unused:  Meli Nakauta, Manasa Qoro, Isaia Rasila

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

Attendance:  27000
Referee:  Morrison e

Points Scorers:

Fiji
Tries:  Lasagavibau F.T. 1, Satala V. 2, Vunibaka M.D. 1
Conv:  Little N.T. 3
Pen K.:  Little N.T. 3
Drop G.:  Little N.T. 1

Canada
Tries:  James M.B. 1
Conv:  Rees G.L. 1
Pen K.:  Rees G.L. 4
Drop G.:  Rees G.L. 1

Wales 64 Japan 15

Neil Jenkins equalled the world points-scoring record as his side overwhelmed a naive Japanese side 64-15.

Jenkins hit eight conversions and 30-metre penalty to take his international record with Wales and the British Lions to 511, equal with Australian legend Michael Lynagh.

Despite tries in the corners from wing Daisuke Ohasa and inside centre Pat Tuidraki, they just couldn't get into a a big, red machine, bayed on by a 72,000 crowd at the new Millennium Stadium.

The Teams:

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

Japan:  1 Shin Hasegawa, 2 Masahiro Kunda, 3 Naoto Nakamura, 4 Robert Gordon, 5 Hiroyuki Tanuma, 6 Naoya Okubo, 7 Greg Smith, 8 Jamie Joseph, 9 Graeme Bachop, 10 Keiji Hirose, 11 Daisuke Ohata, 12 Andrew McCormick (c), 13 Yukio Motoki, 14 Patiliai Tuidraki, 15 Tsuyoshi Hirao
Reserves:  Takeomi Ito, Wataru Murata, Toshikazu Nakamichi, Yoshihiko Sakuraba, Masaaki Sakata
Unused:  Terunori Masuho, Akira Yoshida

Referee:  Dume j

Points Scorers:

Wales
Tries:  Llewellyn D.S. 1, Penalty Try 1, Bateman A.G. 1, Gibbs I.S. 1, Howley R. 1, Howarth S.P. 1, Taylor M. 2, Thomas G. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 8
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 1

Japan
Tries:  Ohata D. 1, Tuidraki P. 1
Conv:  Hirose K. 1
Pen K.:  Hirose K. 1

Scotland 43 Uruguay 12

Scotland emerged victorious but with little glory from a barely-watched, error-strewn, hard-hitting encounter at Murrayfield.

It was the 69th minute before the Scots could add to their 29-6 halftime lead, Gregor Townsend cutting through a massive gap to score under the posts, and the hosts did little to impress, despite their attempt at expansive play.

A brutally high tackle from blindside flanker Martin Leslie proved the main talking point of a first half in which Scottish handling errors generally prevented them from capitalising on their territorial advantage.

A Murrayfield crowd which the Scottish Rugby Union were hard-pressed to describe at numbering 10,000 could have expected far more than the four tries which they witness.  The best of the four, though, was a run from the half-way line which resulted in Glenn Metcalfe crossing the line.  Scrum-half Gary Armstrong, who had scored the second try of the match, made a break.  He passed to winger Kenny Logan who, bogged down by South American tacklers, batted it back.  Fullback Metcalfe snatched the ball from the air and, in a move that could have been described as a second movement, went over in the left corner.

Leslie scored the first five-pointer of the match, the lucky beneficiary of a maul which pushed ten yards to the line before collapsing, although replays showed that the ball may have touched the floor before the scorer.  He caused more talk, though, when his shoulder met the face of fullback Alfonso Cardoso, knocking the latter straight to the floor.  Leslie received a yellow card for his effort and will surely be dealt with severely when the citing committee meet later in the week.

Uruguay, perceived as little more than whipping boys before this tournament, put in their second battling game north of the border.  Having out-battled Spain last weekend, they came up against supposedly far superior opponents and were certainly not over-awed.  If anything, Scotland were intimidated by the brutality of the South American tackles.  Martin Leslie payed for his first half transgressions by being upended and Armstrong had to be tended to on the field after a massive hit from 20-stone Bristol tighthead Pablo Lemoine.

If Scotland hope to progress beyond the initial stages of this tournament they must improve, and quickly.

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 George Graham, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Tom Smith, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Gordon Simpson, 9 Gary Armstrong (c), 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 Jamie Mayer, 13 Alan Tait, 14 Cammie Murray, 15 Glenn Metcalfe
Reserves:  Shaun Longstaff, Dave Hilton, Bryan Redpath, Robbie Russell, Peter Walton
Unused:  Duncan Hodge, Doddie Weir

Uruguay:  1 Pablo Lemoine, 2 Diego Lamelas, 3 Rodrigo Sanchez, 4 Juan Carlos Bado, 5 Mario Lame, 6 Nicolas Brignoni, 7 Martin Panizza, 8 Diego Ormachea (c), 9 Federico Sciarra, 10 Diego Aguirre, 11 Pablo Costabile, 12 Martin Mendaro, 13 Pedro Vecino, 14 Juan Menchaca, 15 Alfonso Cardoso
Reserves:  Eduardo Berruti, Francisco De Los Santos, Nicolas Grille, Agustin Ponce de Leon, Fernando Sosa Diaz, Guillermo Storace, Jose Viana

Attendance:  9463
Referee:  Dickinson s

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Metcalfe G.H. 1, Armstrong G. 1, Leslie M.D. 1, Russell R.R. 1, Simpson G.L. 1, Townsend G.P.J. 1
Conv:  Logan K.McK. 5
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 1

Uruguay
Pen K.:  Aguirre D. 3, Sciarra F. 1

France 47 Namibia 13

French fullback Ugo Mola celebrated a personal triumph of three tries but it simply flattered a unimpressive French side as they beat Namibia 47-13.

The French, booed off at half-time after a series of elementary errors that had left them just 23-13 ahead, outscored the Nambibian farmers by six tries to one but rarely showed the fluency required of a World Cup winner let alone a group winner.

Under fire captain Raphael Ibanez was replaced with 15 minutes to go.  France had extended their lead early in the second-half as recalled fly-half Christophe Lamaison fed Mola on the blindside and the 26-year-old, who had only retained his place because Thomas Castaignede was ruled out of the tournament on Thursday, touched down for his sixth international try in the corner.

Mola, who had been dropped from fly-half following the 54-7 thrashing by the All Blacks earlier this year, added a second seven minutes later after constant French pressure told on the the weary Namibians, who had repelled the French for five minutes on their own line.

A pumped up Mola, who had said earlier in the week that he thought he had blown his chance of keeping his place in the team, claimed his hat-trick minutes later cutting in to take a pass from winger Philippe Bernat-Salles and forced his way over despite the despairing tackle of Francois van Rensburg.

Bernat-Salles, who was France's outstanding player on a forgettable night for the team, fed Ntamack for the next try, his 24th in 37 tests, after Lamaison had delivered a clever defence splitting pass to the winger.

It had been Bernat-Salles who had given France some breathing space at the end of the first-half as he profited from a Namibian error to score a try and give a dreadful France a 23-13 half-time lead over the African minnows.

Earlier a try by winger Arthur Samuelson had rocked the French.

Bernat-Salles profited from a careless pass by Namibian fly-half Andre Zaayman to kick ahead and with no Namibian cover touch down.

It was a cruel blow to the Namibians who had looked the French equals particularly after the 24-year-old Samuelson burst onto a van Rensburg pass to get between the French centres and score under the posts in the 20th minute.

French scrum-half Pierre Mignoni, who had admitted that he had not played well in the first match against Canada, squeezed over the line aided by his pack to open the scoring for France -- Richard Dourthe converted it.

Namibia's classy full-back turned winger Leandre van Dyk reduced the deficit four minutes later when he ignored the booes of the French spectators to convert a penalty.

However despite Dourthe converting a penalty to restore the seven point gap it was the Africans who created the better opportunities as van Dyk intercepted a pass in his own half and after kicking ahead van Rensburg was only beaten to the line by a despairing French boot.

The French suffered another blow when number eight Thomas Lievremont went off injured after he had been brought to ground following a rampaging run in the 26th minute -- former captain Abdelatif Benazzi replaced him.

The Teams:

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Raphael Ibanez (c), 3 Franck Tournaire, 4 Olivier Brouzet, 5 Fabien Pelous, 6 Marc Lievremont, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Thomas Lievremont, 9 Pierre Mignoni, 10 Christophe Lamaison, 11 Philippe Bernat-Salles, 12 Richard Dourthe, 13 Stephane Glas, 14 Emile Ntamack, 15 Ugo Mola
Reserves:  Abdelatif Benazzi, Arnaud Costes, Marc Dal Maso, Cedric Desbrosses, Xavier Garbajosa, Cedric Soulette, Stephane Castaignede

Namibia:  1 Mario Jacobs, 2 Hugo Horn, 3 Joodt Opperman, 4 Heino Senekal, 5 Pieter Steyn, 6 Quinn Hough (c), 7 Thys Van Rooyen, 8 Sean Furter, 9 Riaan Jantjies, 10 Johan Zaayman, 11 Attie Samuelson, 12 Schalk Van Der Merwe, 13 Francois Van Rensburg, 14 Leane Van Dyk, 15 Glovin Van Wyk
Reserves:  Andries Blaauw, Herman Lintvelt, Cliff Loubscher, Eben Smith, Johannes Theron, Sarel Janse Van Rensburg
Unused:  Lukas Holtzhausen

Attendance:  34030
Referee:  White c

Points Scorers:

France
Tries:  Bernat-Salles P. 1, Mola U. 3, Ntamack E. 1, Mignoni P. 1
Conv:  Dourthe R. 4
Pen K.:  Dourthe R. 3

Namibia
Tries:  Samuelson A. 1
Conv:  Van Dyk L. 1
Pen K.:  Van Dyk L. 2

Romania 9 Australia 57

Back-rower Toutai Kefu grabbed a hat-trick of tries as World Cup heavyweights Australia ran in nine to trounce Romania 57-9 in their Pool E match at soggy Ravenhill ground in Belfast.

Replacement wing Joe Roff grabbed a pair, while Tim Horan, Jason Little, substitute hooker Jeremy Paul and fullback Matthew Burke also crossed the line.  Burke landed five conversions and John Eales one.  The Australians dominated throughout.  They were simply too quick and too slick for their outgunned opponents in what was little more than a training run.

The one-sided proceedings were enlivened, however, by the late incursion onto the pitch of two Australian streakers -- one male and one female, who earned one of the biggest cheers of the night.  The Wallabies led after just 90 seconds after they won a 5-metre scrum and the ball passed through the hands of George Gregan and Rod Kafer to allow centre Horan to cross the line unchallenged.

Burke failed to add the extra points but Tongan-born number eight Kefu scored the second Australian try after seven minutes when he collected a clever reverse pass from Gregan.  This time Burke was successful and the Aussies led 12-0.  The pattern was set.

The Romanians got on the board after 13 minutes with a penalty from clever scrum-half Petre Mitu after he had been obstructed but it was a rare success for the eastern Europeans.  Kefu got his second try after 24 minutes when the Australians won another scrum and were able to push their way over the line.  Burke was again successful with his kick.

A crossfield kick from Horan was fumbled by wing Cristian Sauan and Jason Little turned to dot the ball down fully five minutes into time added on.  This time, Burke's kick missed.  The Australians made three changes at halftime and it took less than three minutes before Roff, on for Ben Tune, strolled over the line.  Burke's kick made it 31-3.  Roff took only six more minutes to add his second try.

The Australian survived a few uncomfortable moments before Paul scored his third test try in the 65th minute, followed by Burke crossing three minutes later.  Burke converted both.  Mitu then landed a pair of late penalties for the Romanians before Kefu completed his hat-trick with just a couple of minutes remaining.  Eales took over the kicking duties and was successful.

The Aussies made a late change when flanker Matt Cockbain withdrew with a left knee injury he suffered during the pre-match warm-up and was replaced by Owen Finegan -- but the change was academic given their superiority.

The Australians, world champions in 1991, are undoubtedly one of the tournament favourites after their Bledisloe Cup win over New Zealand five weeks ago.

The Teams:

Romania:  1 Laurentiu Rotaru, 2 Petre Balan, 3 Constantin Stan, 4 Tiberiu Brinza, 5 Ovidiu Slusariuc, 6 Alin Petrache, 7 Erdinci Septar, 8 Catalin Draguceanu, 9 Petre Mitu, 10 Roland Vusec, 11 Cristian Sauan, 12 Gabriel Brezoianu, 13 Romeo Gontineac (c), 14 Gheorghe Solomie, 15 Mihai Vioreanu
Reserves:  Daniel Chiriac, Florin Corodeanu, Nicolae Dragos Dima, Razvan Mavrodin
Unused:  Marius Iacob, Radu Fugigi, Ionut Tofan

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

Attendance:  12500
Referee:  Honiss p

Points Scorers

Romania
Pen K.:  Mitu P. 3

Australia
Tries:  Burke M.C. 1, Horan T.J. 1, Kafer R. 1, Kefu R.S.T. 3, Little J.S. 1, Roff J.W.C. 2
Conv:  Burke M.C. 5, Eales J.A. 1

Tonga 9 New Zealand 45

Giant winger Jonah Lomu, the star of the last World Cup, scored two tries as New Zealand recovered from a poor start to swamp rank outsiders Tonga 45-9 in the Group B match inn Bristol.

In the first full international between the two countries, Lomu stood out from a mediocre All Blacks performance as he powered over for a try in each half.  New Zealand captain Taine Randell admitted his side would have to show a massive improvement when they face England at Twickenham next Saturday.  "We expected to do a hell of a lot better but we knew the Tongans would be really fired up for this one," said the number eight, sporting a number of bruises and abrasions on his face.  "We have got a quite a few things to work on throughout our game before we play England who looked very impressive against Italy yeterday.

"We were pretty rusty at the start when the Tongans came at us with everything, but we stuck to our game-plan and got it together at the end."  The World Cup favourites looked anything but world beaters in a scrappy first 60 minutes, made worse by windy and wet conditions, as the Tongans disrupted their rhythm with a tough, well-organised performance.  England will have seen little to worry them in the All Blacks' sloppy display against a team quoted at 250-1 by bookmakers to win the tournament.  New Zealand went into half-time leading just 16-9 but they finally found their form in the final quarter of the match, running in four tries, as the Tongans began to tire.

Twenty of their points came from the boot of fly-half Andrew Mehrtens who struck four penalties and four conversions.  Josh Kronfeld, Norm Maxwell, Byron Kelleher were the other try-scorers.

Tonga, though, rarely threatened to cross the New Zealand line, setting out instead to play a spoiling, defensive game with damage limitation clearly uppermost in their minds.  Full-back Siua Taumalolo scored all their points with three penalties.

The two teams squared up before kick-off as the All Blacks unveiled their new more aggressive "Haka", the traditional Maori war-cry while Tonga, facing them just yards away, performed their own dance of "Ikale Tahi".

New Zealand took just seven minutes to open their World Cup account when Lomu cut in from the wing and strolled under the posts for his 18th international try after a neat inside pass from fly-half Andrew Mehrtens.  Mehrtens made no mistake with the conversion and then added a penalty eight minutes later to put the All Blacks 10-0 in front.

Tonga, buoyed by their 20-16 win over France in June, were expected to take an aggressive approach against a country they resent for "poaching" a number of their top players -- including Lomu -- and for refusing to play them at full Test level.

But the Pacific Islanders maintained their discipline in a tight opening half hour as the much-vaunted All Blacks struggled to impose themselves.

Full-back Siua Taumalolo closed the gap to four points with two penalties midway through the half.  The All Blacks were clearly rattled by their powerful, well-organised opponents, and their play became increasingly scrappy as the half wore on.

The normally unflappable Mehrtens even missed two fairly straightforward penalties before converting his second from four attempts in the 33rd minute.  But moments later Taumalolo struck his third to close the gap to 13-9 before Mehrtens struck again to restore the All Blacks seven-point lead.

And the fly-half added his fourth five minutes after the interval before Lomu burst down the right wing for his second try of the match and open the floodgates.  Kronfeld, Maxwell and Kelleher all went over in quick succession to put a flattering gloss on a disappointing performance.

The Teams:

Tonga:  1 Ta'u Fainga'anuku, 2 Fe'ao Vunipola, 3 Tevita Taumoepeau, 4 Isi Fatani, 5 Ben Hur Kivalu, 6 Hingano Fakatou, 7 Jonathan Koloi, 8 Va'a Toloke, 9 Sililo Martens, 10 'Elisi Vunipola, 11 Tauna'holo Taufahema, 12 David Tiueti, 13 Semi Taupeaafe, 14 Fepiko Tatafu, 15 Siua Taumalolo
Reserves:  David Edwards, Latiume Maka, Falamani Mafi, Ngalu Taufo'ou, Isi Tapueluelu, Matt Te Pou, Sione Tuipulotu

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

Attendance:  22000
Referee:  Bevan d

Points Scorers:

Tonga
Pen K.:  Taumalolo S. 3

New Zealand
Tries:  Kelleher B.T. 1, Kronfeld J.A. 1, Lomu J.T. 2, Maxwell N.M. 1
Conv:  Mehrtens A.P. 4
Pen K.:  Mehrtens A.P. 4

Samoa 43 Japan 9

Big-hitting Samoa, led by their devastating full-back Silao Leaega, overpowered Japan 43-9 in their Group D World Cup match here on Sunday -- running in five tries.

Leaega's personal tally was 23 points.  And when he wasn't scoring he was wreaking havoc with Japan's stuttering attack with some massive hits.  Half-way through the first-half his opposite number Tsutomu Matsuda was bursting through on the break until Leaega hit him with a tackle that stopped him dead in his tracks.

Matsuda had to go off, clearly suffering from a shoulder injury.  His place was taken by Patiliai Tuidraki.  In atrocious conditions, a stiff wind and driving rain, it was Japan who opened the scoring when Keiji Hirose converted his first penalty after only four minutes.

Two minutes later Leaega returned the compliment.  Leaega put Samoa in front with his second penalty after ten minutes but in a scrappy, error-strewn opening 40 minutes, Hirose levelled the score two minutes later with another penalty.

As the intensity of the rain increased Samoan winger Brian Lima pounced on a loose ball just short of the Japanese line in the 23rd minute, shrugged off a tackler and touched down to put the Pacific islanders 11-6 ahead.

Minutes later winger Afata So'oalo won a sprint to a long kick ahead.  With the Japanese defence in disarray, So'oalo slipped the ball to Leaega bursting through on his left, who dived over under the posts.  The burly full-back converted his own try and suddenly Japan were trailing 18-6.

With the rain easing and the sun coming out for the second half Japan began to run at the Samoan defence with centres Yukio Motoki and Terunori Masuho finding gaps but they were denied by some last-gasp defending.

Masuho was stopped less than a metre from the line during an instense spell of Japanese driving early in the second-half.  Hirose closed the deficit with another penalty but Samoa came back and in the 59th minute So'oalo took the ball on the burst to run through the Japanese defence and go over for a try.  Leaega converted.  Pat lamb went over for another try four minutes later but it was disallowed for a punch from Brendan Reidy on Hiroyuki Tanuma as he lay in the ground which was spotted by a linesman.

But as Japan began to wilt So'oala and Lima both ran in tries in the dying minutes to rub salt into the Japanese wounds.  Samoa's win was sweet revenge after being beaten by Japan in the Pacific Rim tournament earlier in the year.

The Teams:

Samoa:  1 Robbie Ale, 2 Trevor Leota, 3 Brendan Reidy, 4 Sene Ta'ala, 5 Lama Tone, 6 Craig Glendinning, 7 Junior Paramore, 8 Pat Lam (c), 9 Stephen So'oilao, 10 Stephen Bachop, 11 Brian Lima, 12 Inga Tuigamala, 13 To'o Vaega, 14 Afato So'oalo, 15 Silao Leaega
Reserves:  Earl Va'a, John Clarke, George Leaupepe, Mike Mika, Opeta Palepoi, Semo Sititi
Unused:  Onehunga Matauiau Esau

Japan:  1 Shin Hasegawa, 2 Masahiro Kunda, 3 Kohei Oguchi, 4 Robert Gordon, 5 Naoya Okubo, 6 Greg Smith, 7 Yasunori Watanabe, 8 Jamie Joseph, 9 Graeme Bachop, 10 Keiji Hirose, 11 Terunori Masuho, 12 Andrew McCormick (c), 13 Yukio Motoki, 14 Daisuke Ohata, 15 Tsutomu Matsuda
Reserves:  Takeomi Ito, Masaaki Sakata, Hiroyuki Tanuma, Patiliai Tuidraki, Akira Yoshida
Unused:  Wataru Murata, Toshikazu Nakamichi

Attendance:  15000
Referee:  Cole a

Points Scorers:

Samoa
Tries:  Leaega S. 1, Lima B.P. 2, So'oalo A. 2
Conv:  Leaega S. 3
Pen K.:  Leaega S. 4

Japan
Pen K.:  Hirose K. 3

Scotland 29 South Africa 46

Holders South Africa survived a mighty scare on Sunday as they overturned a half-time deficit to beat Scotland 46-29 in their opening Group A match of the tournament at Murrayfield.

Scotland led 16-13 at the interval but five second-half tries, helped by some unforced Scottish errors, ensured the Springboks made a winning start to the defence of their crown.

Scotland haven't beaten the Springboks since 1969 and had conceded 147 points in their last three matches against them at Murrayfield.

But the home side started in sprightly fashion and two Kenny Logan penalties, either side of one from South African fly-half Jannie de Beer -- in for the injured Henry Honiball -- gave the home side a 6-3 lead after 20 minutes.

Captain Joost van der Westhuizen's dummy allowed Bobby Skinstad sent Brendan Venter charging down the blind side and over in the corner.  De Beer duly converted and soon after added another penalty to make it 13-6.

Logan replied in kind for 13-9 and that was the cue for Scotland to go for the jugular.  Twice they were denied by fierce Springbok defence and the New Zealander Martin Leslie drove over off the back of a ruck to sent Murrayfield wild, Logan's coversion making it 16-13 at half-time.

Logan converted to put Scotland on course for a major shock with the losers likely to face New Zealand in the quarter-finals.  But disaster struck for Scotland at the start of the second half.

Fly-half Townsend fatally failed to find his touch and several attempts at pushing over South Africa span the ball out to Deon Kayser.  The only coloured player in the team fed centre Robbie Fleck who showed superb pace before diving in at the corner.

Townsend then showed the other side of his game, chipping through for John Leslie who charged towards the posts only for Kayser to make an oustanding try-saving tackle.

A storming passage of play followed which finally yield penalty and Logan swerved the ball over to put Scotland 19-18 ahead.  Townsend sliced another kick after 59 minutes and South Africa made them pay as replacement Ollie le Roux powered through the Scottish defence.  De Beer converted and almost from the re-start South Africa scored again.

Townsend's high pass was missed by Scott Murray and Kayser pounced, sprinting 40 metres to dive triumphantly under the posts.  De Beer added the extras and South Africa were suddenly 32-19 ahead and in control.

Late on Townsend slipped in Alan Tait for a consolation effort and also hit a drop goal, but further Springbok tries by Andre Venter and Van der Westhuizen sealed South Africa's victory.

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 George Graham, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Tom Smith, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Gordon Simpson, 9 Gary Armstrong (c), 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 John Leslie, 13 Alan Tait, 14 Cammie Murray, 15 Glenn Metcalfe
Reserves:  Dave Hilton, Jamie Mayer, Peter Walton, Doddie Weir
Unused:  Duncan Hodge, Bryan Redpath, Robbie Russell

South Africa:  1 Os Du Randt, 2 Naka Drotske, 3 Cobus Visagie, 4 Mark Andrews, 5 Albert Van Den Bergh, 6 Johan Erasmus, 7 Andre Venter, 8 Bobby Skinstad, 9 Joost Van Der Westhuizen, 10 Jannie De Beer, 11 Deon Kayser, 12 Robbie Fleck, 13 Brendan Venter, 14 Pieter Rossouw, 15 Percy Montgomery
Reserves:  Ollie Le Roux, Krynauw Otto, Breyton Paulse
Unused:  Pieter Muller, Chris Rossouw, Werner Swanepoel, Andre Vos

Attendance:  57612
Referee:  Hawke c

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Leslie M.D. 1, Tait A.V. 1
Conv:  Logan K.McK. 2
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 4
Drop G.:  Townsend G.P.J. 1

South Africa
Tries:  Fleck R.F. 1, Kayser D.J. 1, Le Roux A-H. 1, Van Der Westhuizen J. 1, Venter B. 1, Venter A.G. 1
Conv:  De Beer J.H. 5
Pen K.:  De Beer J.H. 2

United States 8 Ireland 53

Dynamic hooker Keith Wood led the way with four tries as Ireland swamped the United States 53-8 in the opening World Cup Pool E match for both teams at Lansdowne Road on Saturday night.

The fiery Irish had too much pace, too much poise and too much power for their largely part-time opponents and Wood completely demolished the feeble American defence.

Ireland's points came from tries to wing Justin Bishop, centre Brian O'Driscoll, four to Wood and a penalty try, while fly-half David Humphreys kicked four conversions and two penalties and replacement Eric Elwood kicked two conversions.  Wood scored three of his tries in a sensational five-minute burst late in the game as the Americans wilted.

The United States got a try from scrum-half Kevin Dalzell, who also landed a penalty, but the Americans dropped too much possession to be a serious threat and spent most of the match on the back foot in their own half.  The United States, trying to bounce back from 106-8 loss to England at Twickenham five weeks ago, were without back-rower Rob Lumkong, who was ruled out by a knee injury.  They were more competitive this time, but their tendency to overelaborate on attack, and to bunch their backline, proved expensive against a well-disciplined Irish side.

Ireland, who led 24-8 at halftime, have now won all three meetings between the teams.  The Irish stormed onto the attack from the kick-off and took a 3-0 lead through a Humphreys penalty within two minutes.

The fly-half also set up the first try with a clever pass after seven minutes that gave Bishop a clear run to the line.  Humphreys converted to make it 10-0.  The Americans bounced straight back when Dalzell took an interception in midfield and scored in the left-hand corner to reduce the margin to five points.

Ireland took control after 15 minutes when American centre Tomasi Takau spilled the ball 40 metres out and the Irish quickly spun the ball wide for the pacy O'Driscoll to score.  Humphreys again converted and it was 17-5.  The Americans added three points through a Dalzell penalty after 26 minutes after Irish lock Jeremy Davidson was penalised for throwing a punch in the ruck -- but the home side controlled play for long periods.

The Irish increased their lead after 29 minutes when they scored a pushover try after winning a 5-metre lineout.  British Lions hooker Wood, who is becoming a prolific try-scorer, was the man who got the ball down.  Humphreys' kick appeared to go wide, but both touch judges ruled the conversion was good and the Irish led by 16 points at halftime.

It didn't take the Irish long to increase their lead after the break, Dume awarding a penalty try after peristent American infringements on their own line.  Humphreys again converted to make it 31-8.  American captain Dan Lyle earned a caution for a professional foul with 15 minutes left and Humphreys banged over another penalty.

Wood bullocked his way over the line with nine minutes left to rub salt into the Americans' wounds then repeated the dose two minutes later and, remarkably, again a minute later when he collected a kick over the top to score in the corner.

American Luke Gross and Ireland's Paddy Johns earned cautions for a late flare-up, but by that time it was academic.

Ireland have made the quarter-finals of each of the three previous tournaments and will be favoured to at least repeat that performance, while the Americans -- making their third finals appearance -- have never made it past the first round.

The Irish fans were clearly not tempted by the match and there were several thousand empty seats in the famous old stadium.

The Teams:

United States:  1 Ray Lehner, 2 Tom Billups, 3 George Sucher, 4 Luke Gross, 5 Alec Parker, 6 Dave Hodges, 7 Richard Tardits, 8 Dan Lyle (c), 9 Kevin Dalzell, 10 Mark Williams, 11 Vaea Anitoni, 12 Juan Grobler, 13 Tomasi Takau, 14 Brian Hightower, 15 Kurt Shuman
Reserves:  Kirk Khasigian, Tasi Mo'unga, David Niu, Shaun Paga, Mark Scharrenberg
Unused:  Joe Clayton, Jesse Coulson

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

Referee:  Dume j

Points Scorers:

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

Ireland
Tries:  O'Driscoll B. 1, Wood K.G.M. 4, Bishop J.P. 1, Penalty Try 1
Conv:  Elwood E.P. 2, Humphreys D.G. 4
Pen K.:  Humphreys D.G. 2

Fiji 67 Namibia 18

The magical Sevens-style of the Southern Seas came to Beziers as Fiji clocked up a national record 67 points over the brave Namibians.  Included in their nine tries were two from flying right winger Fero Lasagavibau, but the influence of coach, former All Black front row Brad Johnstone was also evident in an amount of forward power that would never have been expected from the side before his reign.  That forward power was most obvious in the set piece, where Namibia won just 52 percent of their own lineouts and lost three scrums against the head.  Behind this dashing performance was the old retainer, mercurial fly-half Waisale Serevi, who made ten of eleven attempts at goal, several of which were touchline conversions after dashing scores down the flanks.  Fiji racked up 43 points before the break and, despite allowing two scores from the Southern Africans early in the second period, stepped on the gas when it was needed in order to preserve a comfortable cushion.  A try from Jacob Rauluni finished off the scoring three minutes into time added on and the Fijians must now be favourites to go at least as far as the quarter-final playoffs.  Tomorrow's game between Canada and pool hosts France will give a better indication of which teams are strongest in this, the weakest of groups.

The Teams:

Fiji:  1 Dan Rouse, 2 Greg Smith (c), 3 Joeli Veitayaki, 4 Emori Katalau, 5 Simon Raiwalui, 6 Alfi Mocelutu Vuivau, 7 Apisai Naevo, 8 Setareki Tawake Naivaluwaqa, 9 Jacob Rauluni, 10 Waisale Serevi, 11 Fero Lasagavibau, 12 Viliame Satala, 13 Waisake Sotutu, 14 Imanueli Tikomaimakogai, 15 Alfred Uluinayau
Reserves:  Lawrence Little, Epeli Naituvau, Meli Nakauta, Koli Sewabu
Unused:  Mosese Rauluni, Isaia Rasila, Ifereimi Tawake

Namibia:  1 Mario Jacobs, 2 Hugo Horn, 3 Joodt Opperman, 4 Heino Senekal, 5 Pieter Steyn, 6 Quinn Hough (c), 7 Jaco Olivier, 8 Sean Furter, 9 Riaan Jantjies, 10 Johan Zaayman, 11 Dirk Farmer, 12 Attie Samuelson, 13 Schalk Van Der Merwe, 14 Deon Mouton, 15 Lean Van Dyk
Reserves:  Andries Blaauw, Herman Lintvelt, Eben Smith, Johannes Theron, Glovin Van Wyk, Sarel Janse Van Rensburg, Francois Van Rensburg

Attendance:  10000
Referee:  Mchugh d

Points Scorers:

Fiji
Tries:  Katalau E.S. 1, Lasagavibau F.T. 2, Mocelutu Vuibau A. 1, Rauluni J. 1, Satala V. 1, Smith G.J. 1, Tawake Naivaluwaqa S 1, Tikomaimakogai I. 1
Conv:  Serevi W.T. 8
Pen K.:  Serevi W.T. 2

Namibia
Tries:  Jacobs M. 1, Senekal H. 1
Conv:  Van Dyk L. 1
Pen K.:  Van Dyk L. 2

Argentina 18 Wales 23

Two tries illuminated an otherwise dull tournament-opener which never looked like living up to the pre-tournament hype.  The margin of Wales' victory was somewhat closer than predicted and the Dragons will need to make vast improvements in the next few weeks if they are to avoid the humiliation of being the first RWC hosts to be spectators at the Final.

Following the highlights of Max Boyce in full cry, Shirley Bassey's frock, a perfunctory speech from the Prince of Wales, the retracting roof and a resounding "Land of our Fathers" from the near-capacity 72,000 at the brand new Millennium Stadium, the opening match in the 1999 World Cup, a traditional kicking game was the order of play- as it was in the opening match of the only other World Cup held in the northern hemisphere back in 1991.  Nerves obviously played a part in proceedings as pass after pass went astray and moves broke down into confusion.  By the end of the match, a crowd who had been in full cry accompanying Catatonia's Cerys Matthews in the pre-match entertainment were reduced to a state of near-silence by a war of attrition that went all the way to the wire.

A try by Colin Charvis was the best moment of the first half, a minute into injury time after the Welsh had been shocked at finding themselve 9-6 down.  Hooker Garin Jenkins found himself out of place on the right wing, slipped but managed to retain the ball in order for Howley to fling the ball inside.  Charvis was there in front of the posts to cut through some non-existent Argentinian defence to put Wales into the lead for the first time.

Eight minutes after the break, Swansea centre Mark Taylor ran onto a ball from Gareth Thomas to split the Argentinian defence and touch down underneath the posts.  Apart from these flashes of inspiration, the rest of the game turned into a duel between the two fly-halves, Neil Jenkins and Gonzalo Quesada who traded penalties throughout the match with Quesada achieving the unusual feat of landing more successful kicks than Jenkins with six well-taken penalties.  The Welsh points machine will have to wait a while longer before he overtakes Australia's Michael Lynagh as the world's top points scorer, but his three penalties and two conversions were nonetheless valuable.  Most of the penalties resulted from the strong running of the centres backed up by Wales' major ball-carrier Scott Quinnell.  A lack of quick ball from both sides meant that a lot of possession had to be kicked away and the stop-start nature of the match definitely favoured the one-paced Argentinians.

Still, one area of Welsh play did live up to its advance billing with the front row in absolutely rampant form.  The trio of Rogers, Jenkins and Young completely destroyed their opponents to such an extent that the Pumas front row were intermittently in danger of inspecting the Millennium Stadium's retractable roof at very close quarters as they were muscled skywards by the strongarm Welshmen.

The crowd was also treated to their first sight of Australian-born centre Jason Jones-Hughes who came on for Scott Gibbs in the second half and the former New South Wales back immediately made his considerable presence felt with a massive tackle on Octavio Bartolucci.  On this showing he is likely to be given more of a starring role during the rest of Wales' World Cup campaign.

So, a result for Wales but the inevitable question remains, "Have they got a chance of winning the tournament?".  It would appear not on their performance against a very one-dimensional Puma side.  The Dragons have a mighty scrum but are not the complete outfit quite yet -- as coach Graham Henry has been telling everyone who cares to listen for the past month.  It appears he wasn't playing mind games, indulging in devious psychology, or trying to reclaim underdog status for his side.  He was telling God's honest truth.

The Teams:

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

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

Attendance:  72500
Referee:  O'brien p

Points Scorers:

Argentina
Pen K.:  Quesada G. 6

Wales
Tries:  Charvis C.L. 1, Taylor M. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 2
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 3

Romania 19 Scotland 60

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

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

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

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

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

The Teams:

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

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

Attendance:  6807
Referee:  White c

Points Scorers:

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

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

Canada 11 England 36

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The teams:

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

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

Referee:  Dume

Points Scorers:

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

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

Wales 34 France 23

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Teams:

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

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

Referee:  Honiss p.

Points Scorers:

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

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

Argentina 24 Ireland 32

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Teams:

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

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

Attendance:  15000
Referee:  Bevan

Points Scorers:

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

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

Australia 28 New Zealand 7

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The teams:

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

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

Attendance:  107042
Referee:  Fleming

Points Scorers:

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

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

United States 8 England 106

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Teams:

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

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

Referee:  Paul Honiss (NZ)

Points Scorers:

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

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

Canada 19 Wales 33

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

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

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

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

The teams:

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

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

Attendance:  50000
Referee:  Mchugh d.

Points Scorers:

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

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

Tonga 37 Fiji 39

Fiji winger Manueli Tiko grabbed a hat-trick of tries as his side ran in a total of five scores to edge out Tonga 39-37 in the Epson Cup Pacific Rim match in front of a capacity crowd in the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa.

Fiji led 29-13 at half-time but had to fight off a strong Tongan second-half comeback with tries from lock Kuli Faletau, Katilimoni Tu'ipulotu and Tevita Tiueti who got his second of the game.

However, a try from Samisoni Rabaka meant Fiji keep their hopes of snatching the 1999 Epson Cup title from the grasp of Japan.  Tonga now need to beat Samoa at home next week and also score four tries to gain the vital bonus point.

The results mean Tonga are without a win in this year's tournament and are bottom of the table on points difference.

The Teams:

Tonga:  1 Puku Faletau, 2 Fe'ao Vunipola, 3 Ngalu Taufo'ou, 4 Isi Fatani, 5 Kuli Faletau, 6 David Edwards, 7 Ben Hur Kivalu, 8 Kisione Ahota'e'iloa, 9 Sililo Martens, 10 'Elisi Vunipola, 11 David Tiueti, 12 Siua Taumalolo, 13 Salesi Finau (c), 14 Semisi Faka'osi'folau, 15 Sateki Tuipulotu
Reserves:  Fepiko Tatafu, Kati Tu'ipulotu, Manu Vunipola

Fiji:  1 Niko Qoro, 2 Greg Smith (c), 3 Joeli Veitayaki, 4 Emori Katalau, 5 Simon Raiwalui, 6 Apisai Naevo, 7 Koli Sewabu, 8 Ilivasi Tamanivalu Tabua, 9 Sami Rabaka Nasagavesi, 10 Nicky Little, 11 Fero Lasagavibau, 12 Viliame Satala, 13 Waisake Sotutu, 14 Imanueli Tikomaimakogai, 15 Alfred Uluinayau
Reserves:  Waisale Serevi, Lawrence Little, Dan Rouse, Ifereimi Tawake

Attendance:  10000
Referee:  Aiolupo a.

Points Scorers:

Tonga
Tries:  Tiueti T.L. 1, Ahota'e'iloa K. 1, Faka'osi'folau S. 1, Faletau K. 1
Conv:  Tuipulotu S. 4
Pen K.:  Tuipulotu S. 3

Fiji
Tries:  Lasagavibau F.T. 1, Rabaka Nasagavesi S. 1, Tikomaimakogai I. 3
Conv:  Serevi W.T. 1, Little N.T. 3
Pen K.:  Little N.T. 2

Samoa 27 United States 20

Samoa scored four tries but threw away several other chances through lack of composure with the try line open during their 27-20 win over the United States Eagles in a Pacific Rim clash at Apia Park Saturday.

Samoa led 14-3 at half-time in their first ever test against the Eagles thanks to converted tries by centre George Leaupepe and winger Brian Lima.

Though relieved to win coach Bryan Williams said:  "I think we made hard work of it.  We bombed lots of tries."

"And I felt a bit sorry for our wingers there today because they were thirsting for work and for one reason or another we didn't give them enough good ball," said Williams.

Lima worked hard on defence and in looking for opportunities, like fellow winger Afato Sooalo on the other flank, slicing at midfield to set up Leaupepe's try and engineering one for himself with his characteristic step and speed.

But mishandling and rushed, unthinking passes cost the Samoans more points as well as creating stoppages that made it easier for the Eagles to compete at the resulting slower pace.

"There were times when we could have just delayed our pass and put people into space but too often we tried to throw that 50-50 ball before it was necessary," said Williams.

"You know there were probably five, six tries went begging.  It could have been a really comprehensive victory by 50 or 60 points."

The Eagles' scrum was in constant trouble from the Samoans, but recovered well from a screwing scrum to drive over for a try.

They also exposed defence weaknesses around the fringes taking advantage of one such gap for replacement forward Juan Grobler to run in a fine solo try.

But the Eagles also had their share of handling errors which led to several promising moves breaking down.

The Samoan backs showed glimpses of their abilities with strong running notably by Va'aiga Tuigamala who took the field to replace injured John Schuster early in the game.

The Teams:

Samoa:  1 Fosi Pala'amo, 2 Tani Fuga, 3 Brendan Reidy, 4 Lio Falaniko, 5 Lama Tone, 6 Craig Glendinning, 7 Sene Ta'ala, 8 Pat Lam (c), 9 Stephen So'oilao, 10 Stephen Bachop, 11 Brian Lima, 12 George Leaupepe, 13 John Schuster, 14 Afato So'oalo, 15 Mike Umaga
Reserves:  Inga Tuigamala

United States:  1 Ray Lehner, 2 Tom Billups, 3 George Sucher, 4 Luke Gross, 5 Alec Parker, 6 Dan Lyle (c), 7 Richard Tardits, 8 Shaun Paga, 9 Britt Howard, 10 Mark Williams, 11 Andre Blom, 12 Tini Saulala, 13 Mark Scharrenberg, 14 Brian Hightower, 15 Vaea Anitoni
Reserves:  Chip Curtis, Kevin Dalzell, Juan Grobler, Dave Hodges, Bill LeClerc, Tasi Mo'unga

Referee:  Ian Haideley (Canada).

Points Scorers:

Samoa
Tries:  Leaupepe G.E. 1, Lima B.P. 2, So'oalo A. 1
Conv:  Bachop S.J. 2
Pen K.:  Bachop S.J. 1

United States
Tries:  Grobler J. 1, Lyle D.J. 1
Conv:  Dalzell K. 2
Pen K.:  Dalzell K. 1, Williams M.A. 1

United States 31 Japan 47

Japan finished their 1999 Epson Cup in style as Terunori Masuho scored three tries in the first half and Daisuke Ohata added two more to help Japan to a 47-31 win over the United States.

Japan completed the six-team, round-robin tournament with a 4-1 mark, losing only to Fiji.  The US team, 2-1 like Fiji, still has away matches at Canada and Samoa.

The hosts, playing before 3,900 here Saturday in Hawaii's first international rugby match, trailed by 20 points before Brian Hightower and Tom Billups scored tries to pull within 37-31 with 12 minutes to play.

Keji Hirose's penalty goal and Ohata's try at the final whistle sealed the victory for Japan.

"Credit Japan.  They outhustled us and deserved to win," US captain Dan Lyle said.  "We never got going on defense and it showed."

The US Eagles took a 10-6 lead on Kevin Dalzell's 16th-minute try before Masuho's three tries within 16 minutes put the visitors ahead to stay, although Mark Scharrenberg's try closed the half-time gap to 27-17.

The Teams:

United States:  1 Ray Lehner, 2 Tom Billups, 3 George Sucher, 4 Philippe Farner, 5 Luke Gross, 6 Dave Hodges, 7 Richard Tardits, 8 Dan Lyle (c), 9 Kevin Dalzell, 10 David Niu, 11 Vaea Anitoni, 12 Juan Grobler, 13 Mark Scharrenberg, 14 Brian Hightower, 15 Kurt Shuman
Reserves:  Kirk Khasigian, Bill LeClerc, Tini Saulala, Jason Walker, Mark Williams

Japan:  1 Shin Hasegawa, 2 Masahiro Kunda, 3 Naoto Nakamura, 4 Naoya Okubo, 5 Hiroyuki Tanuma, 6 Greg Smith, 7 Yasunori Watanabe, 8 Jamie Joseph, 9 Wataru Murata, 10 Keiji Hirose, 11 Terunori Masuho, 12 Andrew McCormick (c), 13 Yukio Motoki, 14 Daisuke Ohata, 15 Tsutomu Matsuda
Reserves:  Jyunji Hiratsuka, Takeomi Ito, Masaaki Sakata

Referee:  Tonga e.

Points Scorers

United States
Tries:  Billups T.W. 1, Dalzell K. 1, Hightower B. 1, Scharrenberg M.A. 1
Conv:  Dalzell K. 2, Williams M.A. 2
Pen K.:  Dalzell K. 1

Japan
Tries:  Masuho T. 3, Ohata D. 2, Smith G. 1
Conv:  Hirose K. 4
Pen K.:  Hirose K. 3