France 9 England 15

England produced a courageous performance on Saturday to beat France 15-9 in their Six Nations Championship match at the Stade de France.

England now look on course to finally reward coach Clive Woodward with a major title.

In a hard and gritty match, with England at one stage down to 13 men, both sides failed to score a try with England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson scoring all his team's points, taking his total to 206 in internationals, while French fullback Richard Dourthe kicked three penalties.

France pressured the England line late in the game without finding a way through.  "We knew coming here to the Stade de France that it was going to be very tough -- and that we'd have to give 110 percent," said elated but exhausted England captain Matt Dawson.

The French, who were given no room to play with their traditional flair, were shattered at the end.

Backline ace Christophe Dominici said:  "We're very disappointed as we worked hard to try and overcome them, but the tournament's not lost.  We've still got matches coming up against Scotland and Ireland and Italy.  We're going to have to go away now and come up with something different to what we did here today against this English team." Dourthe, who was given the kicking responsibility after the withdrawal of Christophe Lamaison on Monday, got France to within three points of the English within six minutes of the start of the second-half, kicking two penalties.

The English, who looked to be tiring after a sterling first-half when they had given as good as they got against a much-larger pack, started to make standard errors with Mike Catt ruining a try scoring opportunity when England had an overlap by serving a hospital pass out to winger Ben Cohen.

However, another French infringement, this time by the increasingly rattled scrum-half Fabien Galthie, gave England more breathing space as Wilkinson slotted the penalty between the posts from right in front of goal.

The French then came under a period of sustained pressure during which coach Bernard Laporte's demand for discipline and fair play was sorely tested.  Flanker Olivier Magne was extremely fortunate not to become the second French player to be sinbinned when he punched lock Garath Archer.

Laporte must have been steaming, however, when replacement Serge Bettsen was yellow-carded only a minute after coming on for foul play and Wilkinson converted the penalty to restore England's nine-point lead with a quarter-of-an-hour remaining.

With Laporte throwing on former captain Raphael Ibanez and Pieter de Villiers to bolster his tiring pack, England started to lose their edge and Dourthe landed another penalty to make it 15-9 with eight minutes to go.

Dourthe, making his 24th test appearance, was left red-faced and on his backside when he slipped taking a much easier chance a minute later after England lock Simon Shaw was given a yellow card.

Wilkinson, who tackled like a lion, had opened the scoring with a penalty in the 13th minute after persistent pressure forced the French into an infringement.

English winger Austin Healey almost forged a try out of nothing coming in off his wing to burst through the French centres but delayed his pass to hooker Phil Greening too long and was tackled five metres short of the line.

Wilkinson then added another penalty from 35 metres out halfway through, although the French sparked into life pouring on the pressure close to the England line but scrum-half Fabien Galthie was denied a try when the ball was ripped out of his arms as he crossed the line.

The French did finally look to have got on the scoreboard when Thomas Lombard touched down after a magical weaving run by Christophe Dominici, but Australian referee Stuart Dickinson ruled it out for what appeared to be a marginal forward pass.

Dickinson fell further out of favour with the French when he sin-binned massive French lock Olivier Brouzet for tripping flanker Richard Hill -- Wilkinson coolly converting the penalty to rack up 200 points in just 16 internationals.

The 20-year-old missed a far easier opportunity on the stroke of halftime but his chances in the second half were more limited as the French dominated territorially without being able to break through.

In the end, it was a victory that England merited.  "The English were stronger than us today," admitted French forward Olivier Magne.  "We were lacking strength.  We've got work to do."

The Teams:

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Marc Dal Maso, 3 Franck Tournaire, 4 Olivier Brouzet, 5 Legi Matiu, 6 Abdelatif Benazzi, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Fabien Pelous (c), 9 Fabien Galthie, 10 Thomas Castaignede, 11 Emile Ntamack, 12 Thomas Lombard, 13 David Venditti, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Richard Dourthe
Reserves:  Serge Betsen Tchoua, Pieter De Villiers, Raphael Ibanez, Thomas Lievremont
Unused:  Cedric Desbrosses, Stephane Glas, Christophe Laussucq

England:  1 Jason Leonard, 2 Phil Greening, 3 Phil Vickery, 4 Garath Archer, 5 Simon Shaw, 6 Neil Back, 7 Richard Hill, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Matt Dawson (c), 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Austin Healey, 12 Mike Catt, 13 Mike Tindall, 14 Ben Cohen, 15 Matt Perry
Reserves:  Martin Corry, Iain Balshaw
Unused:  Neil McCarthy, Andy Gomarsall, Alex King, Joe Worsley, Trevor Woodman

Attendance:  78000
Referee:  Dickinson s.

Points Scorers:

France
Pen K.:  Dourthe R. 3

England
Pen K.:  Wilkinson J.P. 4

Ireland 44 Scotland 22

Ireland recorded their first win over Scotland in 12 years after producing a remarkable second-half display to overwhelm the defending champions 44-22 in the Six Nations match at Lansdowne Road.

Ireland, fielding five new caps among eight changes to the side humiliated 50-18 by England two weeks ago, launched a ferocious fightback after going 10-0 down early on to seal their first championship win in Dublin since 1996.

It was also the first time they had beaten a team other than Wales in the championship for five years and the remarkable rediscovery of their form will have done much to relieve the mounting pressure on New Zealand-born coach Warren Gatland.

The defeat was another blow to Scotland, whose defence of the championship had begun so disastrously with a shock 34-20 reverse at the hands of tournmaent newcomers Italy in Rome.

Ireland's points came through tries by lock Malcolm O'Kelly, wing Shane Horgan -- on his debut -- centre Brian O'Driscoll, substitute David Humphreys and captain Keith Wood.

Fly-half Ronan O'Gara, another new face in the Irish line-up, overcame a nervous start to register two penalties and two conversions.  Humphreys, who replaced him early in the second half, struck one penalty and three conversions.

Scotland's points came through a try, two conversion and a penalty by wing Kenny Logan and late consolation tries by fullback Glenn Metcalfe and prop George Graham.

The Teams:

Ireland:  1 Peter Clohessy, 2 Keith Wood (c), 3 John Hayes, 4 Mick Galwey, 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 6 Kieron Dawson, 7 Simon Easterby, 8 Anthony Foley, 9 Peter Stringer, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 11 Denis Hickie, 12 Mike Mullins, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 14 Shane Horgan, 15 Girvan Dempsey
Reserves:  Jeremy Davidson, Rob Henderson, David Humphreys, Justin Fitzpatrick
Unused:  Guy Easterby, Trevor Brennan, Frankie Sheahan

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Gordon Simpson, 9 Bryan Redpath (c), 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Shaun Longstaff, 12 Jamie Mayer, 13 Graham Shiel, 14 Kenny Logan, 15 Glenn Metcalfe
Reserves:  George Graham, Andy Nicol, Robbie Russell, Doddie Weir
Unused:  Duncan Hodge, James McLaren, Stuart Reid

Attendance:  40000
Referee:  Dume j.

Points Scorers:

Ireland
Tries:  Horgan S. 1, Humphreys D.G. 1, O'Kelly M.E. 1, O'Driscoll B. 1, Wood K.G.M. 1
Conv:  Humphreys D.G. 3, O'Gara R. 2
Pen K.:  Humphreys D.G. 1, O'Gara R. 2

Scotland
Tries:  Metcalfe G.H. 1, Graham G. 1, Logan K.McK. 1
Conv:  Logan K.McK. 2
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 1

Wales 47 Italy 16

Fly-half Neil Jenkins wrote himself into the record books as Wales romped to a 47-16 victory over newcomers Italy in the Six Nations championship match at the Millennium Stadium.

Jenkins slotted over seven penalties and three conversions as the Welsh, who ran in four tries, bounced back from their crushing 36-3 defeat by France here two weeks ago.  The Cardiff points-machine kicked a penalty after four minutes to become the highest points scorer in the history of the tournament, overtaking former Scottish full-back Gavin Hastings' record of 288.

The veteran British Lion was already the highest points-scorer in the history of international rugby.

The Welsh ran in four tries through number eight Scott Quinnell, centre Allan Bateman and teenage wing Shane Williams -- making his full debut -- and New Zealand-born full-back Shane Howarth, his fourth in 18 tests for his adoptive country.  Back row forward Wilhelmus Visser scored Italy's only try while Jenkins opposite number Diego Dominguez scored 11 points including two penalties, one conversion and one drop goal.

Italy, who stunned Scotland 34-20 in their championship debut in Rome two weeks ago, were no match for Graham Henry's rampant Welsh side who now tackle England at Twickenham in two weeks time.  Italy face Ireland in Dublin.

With Jenkins winning the kicking competition against Dominguez to give Wales an early 15-6 lead, Henry's side eventually got the try their growing domination deserved.

Lock Chris Wyatt collected from the line-out and found Craig Quinnell who flipped up a pass to his brother Scott who charged over from eight metres for his sixth try for Wales.

Jenkins missed the conversion and after Dominguez quickly reduced the deficit with a penalty, the Welshman responded with his sixth successful kick.

Wales killed off any realistic hopes of an Italian upset when they grabbed their second try just after the break.

Centre Mark Taylor took a quick free-kick and made the break before finding Williams, whose raw pace saw him surge clear for his maiden try for Wales.

Craig Quinnell, Peter Rogers and Gareth Thomas then combined to create a gap for veteran centre Bateman to claim his eighth try for his country.  Jenkins converted from the touchline as Wales began to run riot.

Shane Howarth completed Wales's record home victory over their opponents with a late try under the posts.  Jenkins converted again to take his match tally to 27 points.

The Teams:

Wales:  1 Peter Rogers, 2 Garin Jenkins, 3 Dai Young (c), 4 Craig Quinnell, 5 Chris Wyatt, 6 Geraint Lewis, 7 Brett Sinkinson, 8 Scott Quinnell, 9 Rob Howley, 10 Neil Jenkins, 11 Shane Williams, 12 Allan Bateman, 13 Mark Taylor, 14 Gareth Thomas, 15 Shane Howarth
Reserves:  Ian Gough, Colin Charvis, Dafydd James, Spencer John, Stephen Jones, Barry Williams
Unused:  Richard Smith

Italy:  1 Massimo Cuttitta, 2 Alessandro Moscardi, 3 Tino Paoletti, 4 Andrea Gritti, 5 Giuseppe Lanzi, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Carlo Checchinato, 8 Wim Visser, 9 Alessandro Troncon (c), 10 Diego Dominguez, 11 Denis Dallan, 12 Luca Martin, 13 Marco Rivaro, 14 Cristian Stoica, 15 Matt Pini
Reserves:  Juan Francescio, Carlo Orlandi, Aaron Persico
Unused:  Laurent Travers, Matteo Mazzantini, Alejandro Moreno, Andrea Scanavacca

Attendance:  72500
Referee:  Ramage i

Points Scorers:

Wales
Tries:  Williams S.M. 1, Bateman A.G. 1, Howarth S.P. 1, Quinnell L.S. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 3
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 7

Italy
Tries:  Visser W. 1
Conv:  Dominguez D. 1
Pen K.:  Dominguez D. 2
Drop G.:  Dominguez D. 1

Scotland 20 Italy 34

Diego Dominguez kicked Italy to a historic 34-20 victory over Scotland in the opening match of the new Six Nations Championship.

Italy, coming off three numbing defeats at the World Cup, banished a year of misery to beat the winners of the final Five Nations tournament with Dominguez scoring all but five of his country's points and achieving something that all the other countries had failed to do on their respective debuts in the competition -- beat Scotland.

Italy, watched by Princess Anne at the Flaminio Stadium in Rome, were 12-10 up at the break and ran out deserved winners for a solid, error-free performance that kept the Scots in check.

Dominguez' success contrasted sharply with the miserable afternoon spent by Scottish kicker Kenny Logan, for whom little or nothing went right in front of a crowd of 20,000.

Italy defended well in a tough, balanced match which gave neither side much room to build up wide overlapping moves or solo runs into space.

Dominguez' early drop-kick fell short but Scotland should have taken a sixth minute lead when Logan skewed a 25-metre penalty kick well wide of the left-hand post.

He steered another wide from 35 metres just minutes later as Scotland kept up the pressure but Italy held their ground and kept possession.

Dominguez tried his luck again with a penalty from the 40-metre line but again came up just short, while Scotland lost injured skipper John Leslie with a suspected thigh problem after 14 minutes -- replaced by James McLaren.

Scottish stand-off Gregor Townsend finally broke the deadlock with an 18th minute drop goal from 25 metres, but Dominguez levelled five minutes later -- swinging in a superb penalty from the left, some 30 metres out.

Logan's erratic kicking continued when he sent in a penalty which cracked the left-hand post, flew down and hit the crossbar before bouncing out and being cleared by the Italian defence.

Dominguez showed him how it was done in the 32nd minute with a well-taken penalty from the right as Italy took a 6-3 lead.  But it all changed within the space of four minutes.

Glenn Metcalfe made the first penetrating run of the match, picking up possession 30 metres out and running for the line.

The New Zealand-born Scottish full-back was blocked by a desperate tackle but the loose ball was kicked forward between the posts and hooker Gordon Bulloch sprinted after it for an easy try.

Logan converted for 10-6 and Scotland looked ready to make the decisive break.

But Dominguez came to Italy's rescue with two consecutive penalties -- the second with the last kick of the half -- to put the Squadra Azzurra 12-10 up at the break.

The Argentinian-born stand-off, who toured for the Pumas in the late 1980s, followed up with a ballistic drop goal from 35 metres out in the very first minute of the second half -- and five minutes later hit another from a similar distance as Italy took an 18-10 lead.

Logan had a chance to narrow the gap just a couple of minutes later but the left winger sent his penalty from the 22-metre line just wide of the right-hand post.

Dominguez punished him for the miss almost immediately, booting the Italians into a 21-10 lead with a majestic penalty from the 40-metre line which sailed over the bar in the 52nd minute.

Townsend took over the kicking in the 57th minute for Scotland, calmly knocking home a penalty for 21-13, as the visitors put up a fight.

But Dominguez was in unstoppable form, saving his best of the afternoon when he drove home an angled penalty from 27 metres out -- but just four metres inside the right-hand touchline for 24-13.

He followed up with another 40-metre drop in the 68th minute to put Italy on their way -- 27-13 up against the Five Nations champions, whose handling went to pieces in the closing 15 minutes.

Dominguez nearly rounded off his magical afternoon with a try, but the Scottish defence managed to stop the 33-year-old -- something they failed to do when replacement Giampiero De Carli went over from close range.

Dominguez obliged with a tricky conversion from the right for 34-13.

Scotland stormed straight back up the field to score a try through flanker Martin Leslie in stoppage time, converted by Townsend for 34-20.  But it was too little and too late to save Scotland.

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Gordon Simpson, 9 Bryan Redpath, 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Shaun Longstaff, 12 John Leslie (c), 13 Jamie Mayer, 14 Kenny Logan, 15 Glenn Metcalfe
Reserves:  Dave Hilton, James McLaren, Stuart Reid, Doddie Weir
Unused:  Duncan Hodge, Andy Nicol, Robbie Russell

Italy:  1 Massimo Cuttitta, 2 Alessandro Moscardi, 3 Tino Paoletti, 4 Carlo Checchinato, 5 Andrea Gritti, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Massimo Giovanelli, 8 Wim Visser, 9 Alessandro Troncon (c), 10 Diego Dominguez, 11 Denis Dallan, 12 Manuel Dallan, 13 Luca Martin, 14 Cristian Stoica, 15 Matt Pini
Reserves:  Matteo Mazzantini, Marco Rivaro, Giampiero De Carli, Giuseppe Lanzi, Aaron Persico
Unused:  Carlo Orlandi, Andrea Scanavacca

Attendance:  24000
Referee:  Kaplan j

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Bulloch G.C. 1, Leslie M.D. 1
Conv:  Logan K.McK. 1, Townsend G.P.J. 1
Pen K.:  Townsend G.P.J. 1
Drop G.:  Townsend G.P.J. 1

Italy
Tries:  De Carli G.P. 1
Conv:  Dominguez D. 1
Pen K.:  Dominguez D. 6
Drop G.:  Dominguez D. 3

Ireland 18 England 50

Winger Ben Cohen scored two tries on his debut as England got off to a flying start in their opening Six Nations Championship match, swamping Ireland 50-18 at Twickenham.

Clive Woodward's side ran in six tries in a superb display of running rugby which left the Irish chasing shadows for much of the afternoon in front of a capacity 75,000 crowd.

The Irish rallied in the second half but never threatened to overhaul the 11/10 pre-championship favourites, who have not lost to another home nation at Twickenham since the Irish beat them 13-12 in 1994.

Centre Mike Tindall also scored on his international debut while England's other try scorers were left wing Austin Healey (two) and flanker Neil Back.

Fly-half Johnny Wilknson struck four conversions and four penalties to seal the rout.  Ireland's points came from a try by wing Kevin Maggs and substitute Mick Galwey, two penalties and a conversion by fly-half David Humphreys.

It was a highly impressive all-round display by England as they overwhlemed Warren Gatland's side in the first period -- but a handful of individuals stood out.

Cohen looked an exciting prospect while scrum-half Matt Dawson, captaining England for the first time on home soil, former skipper Lawrence Dallaglio at number eight and centre Mike Catt were all inspirational.  "You dream of something like this," said Cohen, whose uncle George won a football World Cup winners' medal with England in 1966.  "To score two tries on your debut in front of a full house at Twickenham is wonderful."

Dawson praised Cohen and his fellow debutant Tindall, saying:  "The young guns played like seasoned pros.  Their power and confidence was awesome."  After riding a brief, early onslaught from the Irish, England's forwards took control of the game and provided a stream of possession for their backs to run at the visitors.

Fly-half Jonny Wilkinson missed a long penalty in the ninth minute but made no mistake with two other attempts shortly afterwards to put England 6-0 up after 15 minutes.

England's mounting pressure soon brought a try when Northampton wing Cohen cut in from the right, broke two tackles and scored under the posts.  Wilkinson converted to make it 13-0.

It was England's first match since last year's crushing World Cup quarter-final defeat by South Africa in Paris and they were clearly determined to stamp their authority on the inaugural Six Nations Championship.

Ireland had no answer to England's power in the pack and pace in the backs and only tigerish defence stopped Clive Woodward's from running away with the match inside the first 25 minutes.

England scored their second try after a superb flowing move that began deep in their own half.  When Cohen was held up just short of the line, Healey popped up from the left wing to touch down.

Healey added a second a minute before the interval after a superb break by Mike Catt ripped open the Irish defence.

England's total domination continued after the break as Neil Back made the most of some poor Irish tackling to go over in the corner in the 43rd minute.  Wilkinson converted to put England out of sight at 32-3.

Ireland fought back in the third quarter of the match and reduced the deficit when Maggs scored in the corner after an excellent break by 20-year-old centre Brian O'Driscoll, making his championship debut.  Humphreys, having missed the conversion, then slotted a penalty.

England stepped up the pressure though,and Tindall burst through for his first try for his country.  Substitute Mick Galwey grabbed a second try for Ireland, before Cohen rounded off a highly satisfactory debut with his second in the dying moments.  Wilkinson converted to take England to a half century of points.

The Teams:

Ireland:  1 Peter Clohessy, 2 Keith Wood (c), 3 Paul Wallace, 4 Bob Casey, 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 6 Kieron Dawson, 7 Dion O'Cuinneagain, 8 Anthony Foley, 9 Tom Tierney, 10 David Humphreys, 11 Justin Bishop, 12 Mike Mullins, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 14 Kevin Maggs, 15 Conor O'Shea
Reserves:  Girvan Dempsey, Mick Galwey, Trevor Brennan
Unused:  Eric Elwood, Justin Fitzpatrick, Frankie Sheahan, Peter Stringer

England:  1 Jason Leonard, 2 Phil Greening, 3 Phil Vickery, 4 Garath Archer, 5 Simon Shaw, 6 Neil Back, 7 Richard Hill, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Matt Dawson (c), 10 alf Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Austin Healey, 12 Mike Catt, 13 Mike Tindall, 14 Ben Cohen, 15 Matt Perry
Reserves:  Martin Corry, Trevor Woodman, Iain Balshaw
Unused:  Neil McCarthy, Andy Gomarsall, Alex King, Joe Worsley

Attendance:  75000
Referee:  Walsh s

Points Scorers:

Ireland
Tries:  Galwey M.J. 1, Maggs K.M. 1
Conv:  Humphreys D.G. 1
Pen K.:  Humphreys D.G. 2

England
Tries:  Back N.A. 1, Healey A.S. 2, Tindall M.J. 1, Cohen B.C. 2
Conv:  Wilkinson J.P. 4
Pen K.:  Wilkinson J.P. 4

Wales 3 France 36

Bernard Laporte's first game in charge of France ended in a comfortable victory as the World Cup runners-up brushed aside a lacklustre Wales side 36-3 at the Millennium Stadium.

Laporte, who succeeded Jean-Claude Skrela after the World Cup in November, saw his side produce a solid, professional performance with occasional flashes of inspiration in front of a sell-out 72,500 crowd.

France dominated most of the match but led just 9-3 at half-time and had to wait for nearly an hour before they managed to cross the Welsh line.

But two tries in quick succession by flanker Olivier Magne and full-back Thomas Castaignede -- both converted by fly-half Christope Lamaison -- effectively killed off the challenge from Graham Henry's side.

Right-wing Emile Ntamack scored a third try for France late on while Lamaison kicked a total of 15 points including four penalties, three conversions and a drop goal.  Wales' only points -- the first of the match -- came from a Neil Jenkins penalty.

The Welsh, with new caps in Australian-born centre Jason Jones-Hughes,lock Ian Gough and a new skipper in prop David Young, were looking for a hat-trick of wins over France for the first time since their golden days of the 1970s.

But they showed little invention against a France side fielding eight of the team which lost the Rugby World Cup final to Australia on their previous visit to the Millennium Stadium last November.

Castaignede, who destroyed Wales from fly-half two years ago, started at full back for the first time in his international career.

Wales took the lead after 13 minutes when fly-half Jenkins, the highest points scorer in international rugby, kicked a 35m penalty after the French had been caught offside.

France were forced to make a change at centre midway through the half as Richard Dourthe, who had been up all night with a stomach virus, was replaced by Brive's David Venditti.

But within a couple of minutes the visitors -- determined to atone for last season when they finished bottom of the Five Nations -- were level thanks to a drop goal from Lamaison.

The Brive fly-half booted his side into the lead for the first time just a couple of minutes later from a simple penalty opportunity and stretched it to six points with another in the 36th minute.

Lamaison missed a third penalty five minutes after the turnaround but made no mistake moments later to put the French 12-3 in front.

The pressure finally told on the home side as the French scored two tries following lightning breaks from deep in their own territory.

Firstly, Castaignede set off on a searching run and was hauled down a few yards short of the line but Magne was on hand to gather and touch down.

Two minutes after Lamaison's conversion Castaignede made sure of a French triumph when he went over in the ledft corner.

Lamaison converted and then added his fourth penalty before wing Emile Ntamack latched onto a loose Welsh pass, to go over for France's third try and seal the rout.

The Teams:

Wales:  1 Peter Rogers, 2 Garin Jenkins, 3 Dai Young (c), 4 Ian Gough, 5 Chris Wyatt, 6 Colin Charvis, 7 Brett Sinkinson, 8 Scott Quinnell, 9 Rob Howley, 10 Neil Jenkins, 11 Dafydd James, 12 Jason Jones-Hughes, 13 Mark Taylor, 14 Gareth Thomas, 15 Shane Howarth
Reserves:  Geraint Lewis, Richard Smith, Shane Williams, Spencer John, Mike Voyle, Barry Williams
Unused:  Stephen Jones

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Marc Dal Maso, 3 Franck Tournaire, 4 Olivier Brouzet, 5 Legi Matiu, 6 Abdelatif Benazzi, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Fabien Pelous (c), 9 Fabien Galthie, 10 Christophe Lamaison, 11 Emile Ntamack, 12 Richard Dourthe, 13 Thomas Lombard, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Thomas Castaignede
Reserves:  Serge Betsen Tchoua, Pieter De Villiers, Raphael Ibanez, Thomas Lievremont, Alain Penaud, David Venditti
Unused:  Christophe Laussucq

Attendance:  72500
Referee:  White c.

Points Scorers:

Wales
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 1

France
Tries:  Castaignede T. 1, Magne O. 1, Ntamack E. 1
Conv:  Lamaison C. 3
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 4
Drop G.:  Lamaison C. 1

Australia 35 France 12

The best side won the biggest match at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff as Australia won their second Webb Ellis trophy, downing the gallant French 35-12 in the World Cup final.

The Wallabies, strong favourites for this match, didn't fail to take the chances offered to them in a scrappy, bad-tempered encounter.  The handling of their backline was key but also the performance in defence of the men in gold.

"We have a lot of pride in our defence and that was what won it for us," said Australian captain John Eales, with a big grin on his face, shortly after the final whistle blew and shortly before receiving the golden cup and hoisting it to the Cardiff heavens to a massive roar.

A 65th minute try from winger Ben Tune blew the game open after the two sides' kickers, French fly-half Christophe Lamaison and Australian fullback Matt Burke had traded penalties throughout the first half.  A break from scum-half George Gregan went out to substitute flanker Owen Finegan, who popped to the wing for his 22nd Test try in the right hand corner.

A bad-tempered first half was punctuated by penalties, and Burke emerged on top, despite missing two penalties from less than 40 metres out.  Pelous was yellow-carded by referee Andrew Watson following a mass of punches in the seventh minute, following a try-saving tackle by Bernat-Salles on Roff.

More surprising was the yellow card on Australian captain Eales shortly afterwards.  His punch in a scrum was spotted by the touch judge and Lamaison converted the penalty to tie the scores at six.

As the half closed, a Garbajosa drop kick was charged down and, as Les Bleus continually killed the ball, Burke slotted one over from 31 metres out for a 12-6 lead.

France never looked like scoring the vital five-pointer that would have put the two sides on a par.  They continually killed play, and were justly penalised.  A try for Finegan five minutes into time added on perhaps exaggerated the prowess of the Aussies but it was a just reward for the man who has been used as an impact substitute throughout the tournament.

"We've had some close ones, against South Africa and against Wales, but it was a little more comfortable in this one," said Eales.

The Australians will certainly be comfortable tonight as they bask in the glory of a hard-fought second World title.

The teams:

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

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

Attendance:  72000
Referee:  Watson a

Points Scorers:

Australia
Tries:  Finegan O.D.A. 1, Tune B.N. 1
Conv:  Burke M.C. 2
Pen K.:  Burke M.C. 7

France
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 4

France 43 New Zealand 31

A massive 23 second half points from French fly-half Christophe Lamaison gave Les Bleus the biggest upset victory in World Cup history at Twickenham.

The French -- Wooden Spoonists in this year's Five Nations Championship -- had been slated at 15/2 for a victory in the World Cup semi-final but overcame the odds to progress to next Saturday's final at Cardiff thanks to a momentous 43-31 victory.

Down by seven points at half-time, France were even further under the cosh when Lomu took a short pass from Jeff Wilson and dived in for his second try of the match.  Andrew Mehrtens converted for a 14-point lead to the Kiwis.

There then followed a massive glut of French points, a 26-point spree which included two drop goals within two minutes from the mercurial out-half, standing in for the injured Thomas Castaignede.

For periods during the first half, France had the Kiwis rattled, none more so than when two kicks ahead became tooth-and-nail contests on the goal line.  Either could have resulted in a try for Les Bleus.

Dominici kicked the first from 40 yards out and Garbajosa gave chase but, as he chipped forward again, he gave the ball too much, putting it over the dead ball line.  A kick from openside Olivier Magne from the 22 was even closer.  Referee Jim Fleming ruled that Jeff Wilson had touched the ball down in his own goal, although television replays showed that he had in fact still been in the field of play.  A 22-metre drop out saved All Black tension.

In fact, in a half when the normally reliable Mehrtens missed three penalties and a conversion, the main difference between the two sides was Jonah Lomu, who in a trademark move in the 23rd minute, took the ball wide and broke at least four attempted tackles, and even side-stepping a couple to boot, to put his side 14-10 up.

Lamaison's try had put the French ahead just five minutes earlier, a break from Dominici being brought to a halt just in front of the posts by Kronfeld.  A quick ball out saw the fly-half go over.

The killer blow for the French, though, was when, with seven minutes to go, Bernat-Salles dived on a kick ahead for the fourth try for his side.  With the score 24-36 in favour of the French, the World Cup favourites could still have snatched victory.  The All Blacks were pressing for minutes on end but, as the ball went down the backline once more, Magne popped in for the interception.  He kicked and ran, as if his life depended on it.  In the end, Bernat-Salles was just too speedy for Wilson, nudging with the boot and then falling on the ball for the score which nailed the Kiwi coffin firmly shut.

All Black coach John Hart was under no illusions after the game.  "We just made too many mistakes and the French capitalised," he said.  "I hate to think how many balls we dropped today."

Even if they right those mistakes on in the third-place match against South Africa on Thursday, it won't be remotely enough to erase the despair that must be felt throughout the land of the long white cloud.

The Teams:

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

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

Attendance:  73000
Referee:  Fleming j

Points Scorers:

France
Tries:  Bernat-Salles P. 1, Dourthe R. 1, Lamaison C. 1, Dominici C. 1
Conv:  Lamaison C. 4
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 3
Drop G.:  Lamaison C. 2

New Zealand
Tries:  Lomu J.T. 2, Wilson J.W. 1
Conv:  Mehrtens A.P. 2
Pen K.:  Mehrtens A.P. 4

Australia 27 South Africa 21

Australia reached their second World Cup final with a tension-filled 27-21 victory after extra-time over holders South Africa in a try-less epic at Twickenham.

A long-range Stephen Larkham drop goal -- the first of his Test career -- and Matt Burke's eighth succcessful penalty in the second period of extra-time handed South Africa their first ever World Cup defeat.

The Springboks had earlier forced the extra 20 minutes when fly-half Jannie de Beer levelled the scores at 18-18 with a penalty in the sixth-minute of time added on at the end of the second half.

De Beer, who had kicked England to death with five drop goals in the quarter-finals, missed four drop goal attempts out of five this time.

Australia, the 1991 winners who came closest to scoring when scrum-half George Gregan had a touchdown disallowed, will face either New Zealand or France in the final next Saturday at Cardiff.  It was only their 14th win in 45 meetings with the Springboks.

De Beer tried his luck twice in the first 20 minutes but failed to hit the mark, and he also missed an early penalty attempt despite having a swirling wind largely in his favour.

Australia played most of the adventurous rugby of the opening period and after an early miss with a penalty and drop goal attempt, full-back Burke found his range twice to give the Wallabies a 6-0 lead.

Wallaby fly-half Larkham managed to run off an early knee knock and helped direct Australia's impressive backline in which Tim Horan, showing no signs of the stomach upset which had threatened his place in the team, and Burke both raided effectively.  Normal service was resumed when de Beer slotted from 40 metres to get South Africa on the scoresheet and halve the deficit but Burke replied in kind immediately.  Another de Beer penalty just before the interval looked to have put the gradually improving Springboks in touch at 6-9 down.  But in injury time Burke was again on target and the teams headed to the dressing-room with Australia 12-6 up.

De Beer had a third drop goal effort charged down at the start of the second half but earned a reprieve when Australia's Ben Tune was penalised for squaring up to Rassie Erasmus.  The South Africa fly-half hit his penalty true to make it 12-9.

Australia's hopes suffered a further blow when Burke missed from the halfway line soon after and then De Beer tried his fourth drop goal of the match and this time the ball sailed between the uprights.

At 12-12 South Africa were level for the first time since the 13th minute and as the skies over south-west London darkened they suddenly began to exert some real pressure on Australia.

De Beer missed his fourth drop goal attempt as the final quarter approached and the crowd, impatient for tries, roundly booed the Springbok stand-off.

It wasn't pretty but it was effective and Australia were rattled and South Africa centre Robbie Fleck twice breached the game line with strong surges to show his side could also attack from the backs.  A bent Naka Drotske throw gave Australia relief and Burke's fifth penalty gave the them the edge once more at 15-12.

The Wallabies poured onto the attack and after a breathless series of charges foundered on the rock-like Springbok defence Gregan, scorer of two tries in the quarter-final win over Wales, looked to have gone over in the corner.

Australia celebrated but Welsh referee Derek Bevan awarded South Africa a penalty instead, apparently for a double movement.  Soon after though Horan broke again and South Africa were offside, allowing Burke to slot another penalty to give Australia a six-point lead with five minutes left.

It seemed all over but with a minute to go de Beer gave South Africa hope with another penalty.  Australia still looked safe but, incredibly, in the sixth minute of time added on, repleacment Owen Finegan infringed and from 35 metres de Beer nervelessly slotted his fifth penalty to force extra-time.

When the players returned from the dressing-rooms Australia looked dazed, conceding a penalty in front of their posts inside three minutes.

De Beer potted it and for the first time South Africa led, 21-18 but the Springbok hero was quickly hit by a Gregan pass and Burke levelled from the resulting penalty to Australia.

The tension was touchable as half-time in extra-time arrived with the deadlock unbroken.

Larkham, who prides himself on running not kicking, decided the contest by taking leaf out of de Beer's book as he spiralled a sensational 50-metre drop goal between the posts after 93 minutes.  It was his first drop goal in international rugby.

Burke's eight successful penalty out of 10 three minutes later sealed a sensational Wallaby victory three minutes later and this time South Africa had no response.

The teams:

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

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

Attendance:  73000
Referee:  Bevan d

Points Scorers:

Australia
Pen K.:  Burke M.C. 8
Drop G.:  Larkham S.J. 1

South Africa
Pen K.:  De Beer J.H. 6

Scotland 18 New Zealand 30

New Zealand steamrollered their way to an emphatic 30-18 win over Scotland in their World Cup quarter-final at Murrayfield.

The All Blacks ran in four tries to two and will now face France in the semi-finals at Twickenham next weekend.  The other semi-final will be between defending champions South Africa and Australia.

Wing Tana Umaga scored two tries and full-back Jeff Wilson and giant wing Jonah Lomu one each for the All Blacks, while fly-half Andrew Mehrtens kicked two penalties and converted the first two tries.

Scotland's points came from late tries from flanker Budge Pountney and wing Cameron Murray, a penalty and a conversion kicked by wing Kenny Logan and a drop goal from fly-half Gregor Townsend.

New Zealand -- the runners-up in 1995 -- continued their rampage through the tournament and underlined their status as odds-on favourites.  Both Scotland's tries came late in the game when the result was beyond doubt.  The Kiwis scored 176 points and conceded just 28 in winning their three group matches and the gritty Scots, who were playing their final match under coach Jim Telfer, had no real answers to their poise, power and control.

Scotland are the reigning Five Nations champions but the gap in standards between the southern hemisphere and the north was again underlined by New Zealand's dominance.

New Zealand maintained their record of never having lost to Scotland in 21 meetings dating back to 1905 but lost key man Mehrtens to a knee injury at halftime.  He was replaced by Tony Brown and his condition will cause concern to the All Blacks over the next few days.

The Scots, playing in their change tangerine strip, struggled from the start to keep pace with the tournament favourites in a match played in pouring rain and on a damp, slippery pitch.

After surviving some brief early pressure, New Zealanders took the lead through an eighth-minute Mehrtens penalty.  Umaga's 12th-minute first try was the result of a fine charge up the middle by Lomu, the tournament's leading try-scorer.  It took five men to subdue Lomu and when the New Zealanders eventually moved the ball wide, Umaga was on hand to cross the line.

Wilson's try in the right corner -- which saw him pass 200 points in test rugby -- was set up by the pace, awareness and fast hands of Mehrtens, who slipped the ball wide for the fullback to power over the line.  Mehrtens' kick made it 17-0.

The Scots got on the scoreboard through Logan's penalty after 20 minutes but Mehrtens responded in kind five minutes later, although the metronomic kicker did miss a subsequent drop goal attempt.

New Zealand were resolute in defence, but had to survive some uncomfortable moments before Umaga scored his second try in injury time after a superb handling movement and a fine final pass from centre Christian Cullen.

Townsend's drop goal after 49 minutes didn't lead to a Scottish revival.  Instead, Lomu squandered an opportunity for his sixth try of the tournament at the other end when he dropped the ball when over the line.

It wasn't long, however, before he did cross for the 25th try of his All Black career when the Scots were unable to halt his power down the wing.  Brown's kick missed, but the margin was 24 points and the game was out of the Scots' reach.

Pountney got a pushover try for the Scots with 14 minutes left -- his first international try -- and Logan converted.  Murray then went over in the last minute, but it was too little, too late.

New Zealand's win leaves France as the only side capable of winning the World Cup for the first time.  The All Blacks won the first tournament in 1987, Australia triumphed in 1991 while South Africa were victorious in 1995 and have yet to lose a World Cup match.

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 Paul Burnell, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Tom Smith, 4 Scott Murray, 5 Doddie Weir, 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:  George Graham, Stuart Grimes, Robbie Russell
Unused:  Duncan Hodge, Cameron Mather, James McLaren, Bryan Redpath

New Zealand:  1 Craig Dowd, 2 Anton Oliver, 3 Carl Hoeft, 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:  Tony Brown, Daryl Gibson, Mark Hammett, Ian Jones, Kees Meeuws
Unused:  Andrew Blowers, Byron Kelleher

Attendance:  59757
Referee:  Morrison e

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Pountney A.C. 1, Murray C.A. 1
Conv:  Logan K.McK. 1
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 1
Drop G.:  Townsend G.P.J. 1

New Zealand
Tries:  Lomu J.T. 1, Umaga T.J.F. 2, Wilson J.W. 1
Conv:  Mehrtens A.P. 2
Pen K.:  Mehrtens A.P. 2

Argentina 26 France 47

France claimed their place in the World Cup semi-finals on Sunday when they quelled a valiant Argentina side to win a try-filled quarter-final 47-26 at Lansdowne Road.

France raced into a 17-0 lead before Argentina battled back to trail just 30-26, only for the greater freshness of Jean-Claude Skrela's side to show in the final 10 minutes.

Winger Philippe Bernat-Salles and full-back Xavier Garbajosa scored two tries apiece as France touched down five times in all, with fly-half Christophe Lamaison landing 22 points with the boot.  France face the winners of the New Zealand-Scotland quarter-final in the last four.

Argentina, for whom scrum-half Agustin Pichot was outstanding, took great credit for their fightback though and could have scored more than their two tries by Pichot and captain Lisandro Arbizu.  Skrela's much-criticised team showed none of their early tournament rustiness as first Carbajosa and then Bernat-Salles, after a thrilling move, touched down to help France into a 17-0 lead after 12 minutes.

Argentina, surprise conquerors of Ireland in the quarter-final play-offs, were stung into action and Pichot, at fault for the first French try, nipped over down the blind side to reduce the arrears.  Gonzalo Queseda converted and then put over another penalty to make it 17-10.

But Emile Ntamack restored French dominance immediately with a score after charging down Arbizu's kick.  With Lamaison kicking five successful kicks out of five France led 27-10 before Queseda's second penalty and then a fine converted Arbizu try, following a missed tackle by Ntamack, hauled Argentina back to within seven points.

The second period began in bruising fashion with the Argentines clearly pumped up by their fightback.  Argentine prop Mauricio Reggiardi was substituted by Argentina coach Alex Wyllie immediately after smashing a forearm into Richard Dourthe's face, for which he earned a yellow card.

Quesada and Lamasion exchanged penalties and both sides went close to scoring with the darting Pichot in particular catching the eye.  But Argentina suffered a hammer blow on the hour when Queseda, the tournament's leading points scorer with 102, was forced off injured.

Trailing 30-23 the South Americans dug deep and began to dominate, with Pichot at the centre of everything.  Replacement kicker Felipe Contepomi cut the gap to four points with 10 minutes left from in front of the posts after series of bone-juddering charges by the Pumas.  Lamaison settled the French with a booming 45-metre penalty to make it 33-26 and Argentina's granite-like defence finally cracked.

Olivier Magne roared down the left and the ball was spread wide for Garbajosa to suck in the tacklers and pass inside for Bernat-Salles to grab his second.  Lamaison converted and France led 40-26 before Dourthe kicked for Carbajosa to gallop in and complete his brace with two minutes left.  Lamaison converted imperiously to seal a convincing, if belated, victory.

The Teams:

Argentina:  1 Roberto Grau, 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 Gonzalo Camardon, 15 Ignacio Corletto
Reserves:  Agustin Canalda, Manuel Contepomi, Felipe Contepomi, Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, Lucas Ostiglia, Miguel Ruiz, Martin Scelzo

France:  1 Cedric Soulette, 2 Raphael Ibanez (c), 3 Franck Tournaire, 4 Abdelatif Benazzi, 5 Olivier Brouzet, 6 Marc Lievremont, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Christophe Juillet, 9 Fabien Galthie, 10 Christophe Lamaison, 11 Philippe Bernat-Salles, 12 Richard Dourthe, 13 Emile Ntamack, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Xavier Garbajosa
Reserves:  David Auradou, Arnaud Costes, Marc Dal Maso, Pieter De Villiers, Stephane Glas, Ugo Mola, Stephane Castaignede

Attendance:  40000
Referee:  Bevan d

Points Scorers:

Argentina
Tries:  Arbizu L. 1, Pichot A. 1
Conv:  Quesada G. 2
Pen K.:  Contepomi F. 1, Quesada G. 3

France
Tries:  Bernat-Salles P. 2, Garbajosa X. 2, Ntamack E. 1
Conv:  Lamaison C. 5
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 4

Australia 24 Wales 9

Australia ended the World Cup dreams of hosts Wales on Saturday, claiming their place in the semi-finals with a hard-earned 24-9 victory at the Millennium Stadium.

Two tries by George Gregan and one from Ben Tune gave the Wallabies a deserved success on a poor quality pitch as Wales finally succumbed to their opponents' greater attacking flair in front of a capacity 72,000 crowd.

In the last four next weekend at Twickenham Rod Macqueen's side, who have conceded just one try so far, will face the winner of Sunday's England-South Africa quarter-final in Paris.  "We're pretty happy," said Australia captain John Eales, whose side led only 10-9 at half-time.  "It was very close at half-time and it was anyone's game.  But our defence held up.  We've a lot of confidence in our squad."  Wales' kick-king Neil Jenkins, who started the match as the new points world record holder with 927, spurned an early chance to go for goal, preferring instead to find touch with a penalty on the halfway line.

Australia, who had racked up 250 points in their last six clashes with Wales, took advantage and Joe Roff had already threatened to open Australia's account after a sharp break by fly-half Stephen Larkham when he created a score for scrum-half George Gregan.  The Welsh defence was nowhere to be seen as Roff spurted down the left flank and passed inside for Zambian-born Gregan to flop over.

Matthew Burke converted to complete the perfect start for the Wallabies.

Jenkins took his next opportunity, slotting superbly from the touchline to make it 7-3.  Australia were dominant though and Burke immediately made it 10-3 with his first penalty.  Jenkins kept Wales within touching distance with another three-pointer as the rain began to drench the turf, provoking handling errors from Australia in particular.

And when Australia flanker David Wilson ventured offside on the half-hour, Jenkins made it 10-9 with his third successful kick out of three.

Mud patches began to appear on the surface and Wales looked the more likely to score, with winger Gareth Thomas wasting a two-man overlap in stoppage time at the end of the first half.  Australia started the second half as they had the first and only a fine Brett Sinkinson tackle denied Daniel Herbert a touchdown after a neat scissors in midfield.  But Wales absorbed the pressure well and the tension was evident as the half-hour point was passed since either side had troubled the scorers.  It took a moment of magic from the impressive Larkham to break the deadlock.

The fly-half took the ball from Gregan and chipped through.  He was baulked by the Welsh defence but Tune stormed through and beat Shane Howarth to the ball to score.  Burke converted and a relieved Australia were 17-9 up with 15 minutes left.

Wilson and Tune were then both quickly denied tries because of knock-ons as the southern hemisphere side greater dynamism began to tell.  This time there was no rain to save the Welsh and in the final minutes they struggled to get out of their own half.

In stoppage time it was the Australians who scored again, in highly dubious circumstances.  Tim Horan broke several tackles but appeared to knock on and when the ball fell loose Gregan touched down.

New Zealand referee Colin Hawke, given the bird by the crowd for much of the match, then infuriated them by awarding the try, which Burke converted to complete Australia's 24-9 victory.  "We just gave away too much ball," said Wales full-back Shane Howarth.  "If you don't play to the best of your ability at this level you get beaten and that's what happened.  We're a bit naive at the moment."

The teams:

Australia:  1 Andrew Blades, 2 Michael Foley, 3 Richard Harry, 4 John Eales (c), 5 David Giffin, 6 Matt Cockbain, 7 David Wilson, 8 Tiaan Strauss, 9 George Gregan, 10 Steve Larkham, 11 Joe Roff, 12 Dan Herbert, 13 Tim Horan, 14 Ben Tune, 15 Matthew Burke
Reserves:  Mark Connors, Owen Finegan, Jason Little, Jeremy Paul

Wales:  1 Peter Rogers, 2 Hooker 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:  Allan Bateman, Ben Evans, Andrew Lewis, Mike Voyle

Attendance:  71500
Referee:  Hawke c

Points Scorers:

Australia
Tries:  Gregan G.M. 2, Tune B.N. 1
Conv:  Burke M.C. 3
Pen K.:  Burke M.C. 1

Wales
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 3

Scotland 35 Samoa 20

Scotland were on top of Samoa from start to finish but their weekend's opponents -- the All Blacks of New Zealand -- will feel they have nothing to fear following a lacklustre 35-20 victory in front of an equally lacklustre Murrayfield crowd.

In the seventh minute of the first half, the Scots were awarded a penalty five yards out and opted for the scrum.  Eight long minutes of scrummaging later, referee David McHugh finally gave up on a fair set-piece and gave a penalty try.

Scotland seemed determined not to fall into the trap of playing an unstructured game, a flaw that had been exploited in the Wales side by Samoa last weekend.  They were dominant in the scrum from start to finish.  The return of Doddie Weir leant strength to the lineout and the kicking of fly-half Gregor Townsend was consistently to touch but the side lacked the flair that will be required should they harbour any hope of putting up a fight when the All Blacks come to town on Sunday.

Ironically, it was the power of New Zealand-born Gordon Simpson and Martin Leslie that made the difference up front for the Scots.  Leslie scored the first try of the match, bullocking his way over towards the end of the first half, but the absence of Martin Leslie and Allan Taint from the centres that lead to the back line lacking bite.  The Scots committed nine handling errors and turned the ball over four times -- a record they cannot afford to match in four days time.

Samoa, oddly for this country famed for its passionate play, seemed not to have come into the game with the same intensity which downed the Welsh in Cardiff.  Their cynical fouling spurred chance after chance for Kenny Logan to kick at goal.  The winger converted five of the six offered.

The Southern Hemisphere side's forward power seemed to increase considerably when Onehunga Matauiau replaced the injured Trevor Leota at hooker after 36 minutes but this was a game governed by handling errors in crucial areas.

The one highlight of a generally dour game was a drop goal from Townsend at the end of the third quarter.  From a ruck just in front of the 22, the ball was spun out and the Brive showman slotted the attempt over with ease.

Wing Brian Lima made a try from half-way as time ran out to close the margin to 15 but there were no real winners from this encounter.

The Teams:

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

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

Attendance:  15661
Referee:  Hawke c

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Penalty Try 1, Leslie M.D. 1, Murray C.A. 1
Conv:  Logan K.McK. 1
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 5
Drop G.:  Townsend G.P.J. 1

Samoa
Tries:  Lima B.P. 1, Sititi S. 1
Conv:  Leaega S. 2
Pen K.:  Leaega S. 2

Fiji 24 England 45

England were tested a little more than they would have liked, and incurred several casualties along the way, but still managed a 45-24 victory over Fiji at Twickenham and now progress to a weekend date with South Africa in Paris.

Young England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson must be the greatest injury concern ahead of Sunday's quarter-final having been apparently knocked out by a high tackle from Fiji captain and hooker Greg Smith as he put Phil Greening over for a try with ten minutes remaining.  A concussion would result in a mandatory three-week lay-off.

Matt Perry was forced from the field with shoulder trouble shortly before the final whistle and Austin Healey was replaced at half-time having taken a general battering.

A half-time lead of 21-3 was more down to the fact that England, through Wilkinson, chose to convert penalties rather than attempting to run or kick for the lineout, as the Southern Hemisphere side invariably chose to.

Penalties were traded for the first quarter of the match before a tremendous breakaway from wing Dan Luger put some space between the two sides in the 23rd minute.  He then promptly left the field with a groin strain.

England were almost as guilty as Fiji of cynical fouling close to the line, with Nick Beal receiving a yellow card after half an hour for holding on to prop Daniel Rouse in the tackle, just yards from the try-line.

Fiji's play has progressed a long way from their familiar, flowing Sevens style but, when given a chance by the English, they took it with abandon.  Two knock-ons close to the line denied tries that could have brought Fiji level at the half but instead England were allowed to bear down with their extra weight and discipline in the tight.

A try for Mel Nakauta in the 79th minute rounded out a period of play in which England were worryingly on the back-foot, but it was too little too late.

The Teams:

Fiji:  1 Dan Rouse, 2 Greg Smith (c), 3 Joeli Veitayaki, 4 Emori Katalau, 5 Simon Raiwalui, 6 Koli Sewabu, 7 Setareki Tawake Naivaluwaqa, 8 Ifereimi Tawake, 9 Mosese Rauluni, 10 Waisale Serevi, 11 Imanueli Tikomaimakogai, 12 Meli Nakauta, 13 Viliame Satala, 14 Marika Vunibaka, 15 Alfred Uluinayau
Reserves:  Nicky Little, Inoke Male, Epeli Naituvau, Jacob Rauluni, Isaia Rasila, Waisake Sotutu
Unused:  Alifereti Doviverata

England:  1 Darren Garforth, 2 Phil Greening, 3 Jason Leonard, 4 Garath Archer, 5 Martin Johnson (c), 6 Neil Back, 7 Joe Worsley, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Austin Healey, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Nick Beal, 12 Mike Catt, 13 Will Greenwood, 14 Dan Luger, 15 Matt Perry
Reserves:  Richard Cockerill, Matt Dawson, Phil De Glanville, Paul Grayson, Richard Hill, Tim Rodber, Graham Rowntree

Attendance:  60000
Referee:  Bevan d

Points Scorers:

Fiji
Tries:  Nakauta M. 1, Satala V. 1, Tikomaimakogai I. 1
Conv:  Little N.T. 3
Pen K.:  Serevi W.T. 1

England
Tries:  Back N.A. 1, Beal N.D. 1, Greening P.B.T. 1, Luger D.D. 1
Conv:  Dawson M.J.S. 1, Wilkinson J.P. 1
Pen K.:  Wilkinson J.P. 7

Argentina 28 Ireland 24

Argentina progressed to the World Cup quarter finals following 89 minutes of the most nail-biting match seen so far in this tournament.

Twenty-three points from fly-half Gonzalo Quesada kept the Pumas ahead in the battle of the boots but it was a 72nd minute try from winger Diego Albanese which broke the game open and lead to a thrilling extra time period.

Seventy-nine minutes had elapsed in the game when Quesada slotted his seventh penalty but little did he know that the best was yet to come.  A huge hit by tighthead prop Mauricio Reggiardo on Irish centre Brian O'Driscoll gave Ireland a chance to kick for the lineout and drive for a match-winning try.  Deep into time added on, the men in green put all 15 into the lineout effort.  The Pumas pulled it down but a second attempt was equally unsuccessful and, as referee Stuart Dickinson blew the final whistle, the Argentina side leapt for the skies.

Dickinson was particularly stringent around the breakdown and 15-9 line in Ireland's favour was purely down to his fondness for blowing up when players went down with the ball.  The only interruption to traded penalty attempts was failed drop goal attempts from both Quesada and his opposite number David Humphreys.

Humphreys was more successful just four minutes after the break when a chip from 35 yards split the posts and, with a 12-point margin, Ireland looked like cruising to a home fixture with France at home on Sunday.  Instead, tonight's victors will face Les Bleus in front of a Dublin crowd deprived of their appetite for action.

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 Gonzalo Camardon, 15 Ignacio Corletto
Reserves:  Felipe Contepomi, Martin Scelzo

Ireland:  1 Paul Wallace, 2 Keith Wood, 3 Reg Corrigan, 4 Jeremy Davidson, 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 6 Kieron Dawson, 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:  Bob Casey, Eric Miller, Justin Fitzpatrick

Attendance:  22000
Referee:  Dickinson s

Points Scorers:

Argentina
Tries:  Albanese D.L. 1
Conv:  Quesada G. 1
Pen K.:  Quesada G. 7

Ireland
Pen K.:  Humphreys D.G. 7
Drop G.:  Humphreys D.G. 1

Scotland 48 Spain 0

Scotland booked their place in the World Cup quarter-final play-offs with a 48-0 victory over Spain in the final group A match at a near-empty Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday.

Just 17,500 fans were there to see the Five Nations champions run up seven tries to set up a clash for a place in the last eight back at the 67,000 capacity Murrayfield next Wednesday against either Wales, Samoa, or Argentina.

Scotland's points came from two tries from Cammie Mather, one apiece for Shaun Longstaff, James McLaren, Cameron Murray and Duncan Hodge.

The Scots were also awarded a penalty try while fly-half Hodge struck five conversions and a penalty for a personal points tally of 18.

Spain, twice thrashed by Scotland in the World Cup qualifiers, exit the competition without a win following their earlier defeats by Uruguay and South Africa.

The Spanish, written off as whipping boys before the tournament, have impressed with their courage -- particularly against South Africa -- but they headed for Edinburgh airport without even a try to their name.

Scotland, who lost their opener 46-29 to South Africa and were unimpressive in a 47-12 win over Uruguay, needed a handsome victory to rouse the flagging interest in their campaign amongst the Scottish public.

Hugh blocks of seats were empty as the players took the field but the flat, echoing atmosphere did not appear to affect the Scots who tore into their opponents from the start.

Hodge put the Scots in front with an early penalty before the Scots went 10-0 ahead when the back-pedalling Spanish scrum conceded a penalty try in the 12th minute.  It was the third penalty try conceded by Spain's lightweight pack in the World Cup.

Flanker Mather barged over from close range for Scotland's second try before New Zeland-born left wing Longstaff raced over in the corner for a third.

Centre McLaren scored his second try in his third match for Scotland to stretch the Scots' lead three minutes after the break.

Mather buried over for his second try as the Scots turned up the pressure before Murray came bursting off the wing at an angle to run in Scotland's sixth try.

Hodge punched a hole through the increasingly creaky Spanish defence to touch down under the posts in the 64th minute.  Hodge converted what proved to be the last points of the match as the Spanish staged a spirited rally in the final quarter.

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 Paul Burnell, 2 Robbie Russell, 3 Dave Hilton, 4 Andy Reed, 5 Doddie Weir, 6 Cameron Mather, 7 Peter Walton, 8 Stuart Reid, 9 Bryan Redpath (c), 10 Duncan Hodge, 11 Shaun Longstaff, 12 Jamie Mayer, 13 James McLaren, 14 Cammie Murray, 15 Chris Paterson
Reserves:  Iain Fairley, Gregor Townsend
Unused:  Glenn Metcalfe, Gordon Bulloch, George Graham, Stuart Grimes, Martin Leslie

Spain:  1 Victor Torres Funes, 2 Diego Zarzosa Pena, 3 Jose Ignacio Zapatero Ferreras, 4 Oscar Astarloa Uriarte, 5 Jose Miguel Villau Cabeza, 6 Jose Diaz, 7 Carlos Souto Vidal, 8 Alfonso Mata Suarez, 9 Aratz Gallastegui Sodupe, 10 Andrei Kovalenco, 11 Miguel Angel Frechilla Manrique, 12 Alvar Enciso Fernandez-Valderam (c), 13 Sebastien Loubsens, 14 Jose Ignacio Inchausti Bravo, 15 Francisco Puertas Soto
Reserves:  Fernando De La Calle Pozo, Luis Javier Martinez Villanueva, Agustin Malet Raga, Alberto Socias Olmos, Steve Tuineau Iloa, Ferran Velazco Querol
Unused:  Jaime Alonso Lasheras

Attendance:  17593
Referee:  Thomas c

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Longstaff S.L. 1, Penalty Try 1, Hodge D.W. 1, Mather C.G. 2, McLaren J.G. 1, Murray C.A. 1
Conv:  Hodge D.W. 5
Pen K.:  Hodge D.W. 1

France 28 Fiji 19

A last minute try by winger Christophe Dominici gave France a 28-19 win over Fiji and landed them the Group C crown -- Fiji finish runners-up.

An error ridden match in which the French, who led 13-3 at the break, scored three tries to Fiji's one was enlivened by a superb touchdown from Fijian fullback Alfred Uluinayau to get his side back into the match in the second-half.

The match descended into farce with 15 minutes to go as referee Paddy O'Brien, who had a poor game, awarded France eight successive scrums five metres out and booked all three of the Fijian front row for purposefully turning the scrums before finally awarding the French a penalty try.

Fijian fly-half Nicky Little, who had been preferred to sevens legend Waisale Serevi because coach Brad Johnstone believed he exerted more control, had reduced the gap to just seven points four minutes into the second period with a sweetly struck penalty.

Uluinayau then produced his magic taking the pass from scrum-half Jacob Rauluni and broke three feeble tackles, sidestepping fullback Ugo Mola, to run it in from 40 metres out for his second international try and turned the volatile French crowd against their side.

Five minutes later the Fijians, quarter-finalists in 1987, were ahead as Little converted another penalty from in front of the posts and added another to give his side a six point lead -- however, the French nosed ahead with the penalty try.

The French, who have been unconvincing so far, scored one try in the first-half to lead the Fijians into the break -- but O'Brien's poor performance had deprived both sides of a try apiece.

Christophe Juillet, who was dropped for the Namibia match but recalled for this one because Thomas Lievremont was injured, thrust himself over the line from three metres out after Stephane Castaignede fed him the pass.

France had started shakily, dropping balls and knocking on, and missed a golden opportunity in the fourth minute when with an overlap Richard Dourthe delayed too long and Viliame Satala was able to tackle Dominici short of the line.

Dourthe's penalty, however, settled them down and a wonderful passing move with Lamaison missing out Dourthe to create the overlap broke down when Ugo Mola passed forward to Dominici -- another schoolboy type forward pass by Philippe Bernat-Salles halted another French move.

Little missed an earlier opportunity to level the scores at 3-3 when his penalty in front of the posts, albeit a long way out, went wide.

Fiji were fortunate to have 15 players on the pitch as number eight Alivereti Maceletu, who had already been shown the yellow card for blocking captain Raphael Ibanez, layed out the hooker with his forearm.

Ibanez's tough first-half got worse as O'Brien booked him mistakenly for butting giant Fijian prop Joeli Veitayaki when in fact it was Christian Califano.

O'Brien infuriated the French when having awarded a try to Dominici following a penalty he changed his mind declaring that the French had initially said they were going for goal -- Dourthe converted the penalty.

The Kiwi balanced out his decisions by anulling a genuine Fijian try when Setareki Tawake went over -- ruling that he'd knocked on although it was French fullback Ugo Mola who had lost the ball in a tackle.

The Teams:

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

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 Manasa Bari, 12 Viliame Satala, 13 Waisake Sotutu, 14 Fero Lasagavibau, 15 Alfred Uluinayau
Reserves:  Meli Nakauta, Koli Sewabu
Unused:  Waisale Serevi, Epeli Naituvau, Mosese Rauluni, Isaia Rasila, Ifereimi Tawake

Attendance:  36000
Referee:  O'brien p

Points Scorers:

France
Tries:  Juillet C. 1, Dominici C. 1, Penalty Try 1
Conv:  Dourthe R. 2
Pen K.:  Dourthe R. 2, Lamaison C. 1

Fiji
Tries:  Uluinayau A.B. 1
Conv:  Little N.T. 1
Pen K.:  Little N.T. 4

Argentina 33 Japan 12

Points machine Gonzalo Quesada produced another superb kicking display to boot Argentina into the World Cup knockout stages in a 33-12 win over Japan at the Millennium Stadium.

The result of the final match of the group stages means that Wales win Group D and will play Australia in the quarter-finals in Cardiff.

The Argentinians, as the best third-placed team in the five groups, will play Ireland in Lens, in the quarter-final play-offs on Wednesday.

Samoa will play Scotland at Murrayfield on the same day after finishing second in the group.

Fly-half Gonzalo Quesada, the World Cup's leading points scorer, struck seven penalties while Agustin Pichot and Diego Albanese scored tries to see off the Japanese who leave the World Cup without a win.

Quesada has now scored 66 of his team's 83 points in the competition after kicking 18 points in the 23-18 defeat to Wales and 27 in the 32-16 win over Samoa.

The match boiled down to a battle of the the goalkickers with Quesada getting the better of his opposite man Keija Hirose who kicked all four of his attempts at goal.

Quesada made amends for an earlier miss when he put the Pumas 6-0 in with two penalties in quick succession.

Hirose reduced the deficit with a penalty before Argentinian scrum-half Pichot burst down the blindside for a superb try in the left corner.

Quesada missed a difficult conversion from the touchline but moments later he stretched the lead to 14-3 with his third penalty before Hirose hit back with his second.

Quesada soon added another three points but Japan, who won the last meeting between the countries, a 44-29 triumph in Tokyo last year, kept in contention when Hirose made it 17-9 just before half-time.

The pattern of tit-for-tat penalties continued after the break with the two goal-kickers both adding three points to their totals in the first five minutes.

Quesada, nicknmaed Speedy Gonzalez because of the lengthy time it takes him at kicks, put the Pumas 23-12 in front with his sixth successful kick from eight attempts before adding another.

Winger Diego Albanese went over for a try under the posts in injury time -- converted by Contepomi, who came on in the dying moments to replace Quesada -- to seal victory.

The Teams:

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

Japan:  1 Toshikazu Nakamichi, 2 Masahiro Kunda, 3 Kohei Oguchi, 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 Tsutomu Matsuda
Reserves:  Shin Hasegawa, Takeomi Ito, Naoto Nakamura, Masaaki Sakata
Unused:  Terunori Masuho, Wataru Murata, Yoshihiko Sakuraba

Attendance:  47000
Referee:  Dickinson s

Points Scorers:

Argentina
Tries:  Albanese D.L. 1, Pichot A. 1
Conv:  Contepomi F. 1
Pen K.:  Quesada G. 7

Japan
Pen K.:  Hirose K. 4

Tonga 10 England 101

Fly-half Paul Grayson reclaimed his English record for points scored in a match and his team confirmed their place in the quarter-final play-offs of the World Cup, scoring 13 tries in a 101-10 procession against Tonga at Twickenham.

England were given a helping hand when Tonga's prop Ngalu Taufo'ou was sent off three minutes before half-time for a massive punch, which floored flanker Richard Hill.

Clive Woodward's side were already in control at 24-10 but against 14 men it was no contest in the second half and England were able to give several players a rest ahead of next Wednesday's match at home against either France of Fiji.

Grayson surpassed Jonny Wilkinson's individual scoring record of 32, set just two weeks ago, by kicking 36 points.  He hit 16 successful kicks out of 17, missing just his first conversion.

Hooker Phil Greening, Dan Luger, Austin Healey, Will Greenwood and Jerry Guscott all scored two tries apiece for England.  Greenwood's brace came in the space of just two minutes.

The only worry for England was an injury to scrum-half Matt Dawson who was forced off just before the Taufo'ou dismissal.  The Tongan saw red after full-back Matt Perry was tackled dangerously in mid-air.  A melee ensued which ended with Taufo'ou running 20 metres to deck Hill.  He was red-carded by Australian referee Wayne Erickson to leave the Tongans facing an impossible task.

Two early Grayson penalties settled England, who knew they had to win the match to stay in the competition following their defeat by the All Blacks.  Scrum-half Dawson then scampered over to score after 13 minutes but Tonga's winger Tevita Tiueti put Grayson off his conversion and then from the re-start scorched into the corner past Perry for a try converted by Sateki Tu'ipulotu.  Pegged back at 11-7, Grayson restored England's superiority with two more penalties.

Tu'ipulotu stroked over another penalty for the Tongans but England scored again when Healey burst through the defence and hooker Greening plunged over to touch down.  Grayson converted and England were 24-10 up before the match boiled over at the end of the half.

England took full advantage of their spare man and further converted tries by wing Luger and Perry gave them a 38-10 half-time lead.

The second half was always going to be a formality and Will Greenwood, still feeling his way back after being injured in the opening win over Italy, danced through for England's fifth and six tries to bring up the half-century.

Healey, playing at scrum-half in Dawson's place, and Hill added further efforts but the biggest cheer was reserved for 34-year-old centre Guscott, who was only playing because of an injury to Phil de Glanville.  England's prince of centres gathered a quick Healey tap penalty and ran fully 80 metres to dive majestically under the posts.

Another jinking Healey effort was converted by Grayson to make the score 80-10 and the stand-in scrum-half then generously gave Greening his second try of the match which allowed Grayson to equal Wilkinson's mark, set against the Italians.

Luger and Guscott completed their braces in the dying minutes to take England over the century of points, just as group-mates New Zealand had on Thursday against Italy.

The Teams:

Tonga:  1 Ngalu Taufo'ou, 2 Fe'ao Vunipola, 3 Tevita Taumoepeau, 4 Isi Fatani, 5 Ben Hur Kivalu, 6 David Edwards, 7 Jonathan Koloi, 8 Kati Tu'ipulotu, 9 Sililo Martens, 10 'Elisi Vunipola (c), 11 David Tiueti, 12 Salesi Finau, 13 Fepiko Tatafu, 14 Semi Taupeaafe, 15 Sateki Tuipulotu
Reserves:  Ta'u Fainga'anuku, Latiume Maka, Falamani Mafi, 'Epeli Taione, Isi Tapueluelu, Va'a Toloke, Sione Tuipulotu

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

Attendance:  73000
Referee:  Erickson w

Points Scorers:

Tonga
Tries:  Tiueti T.L. 1
Conv:  Tuipulotu S. 1
Pen K.:  Tuipulotu S. 1

England
Tries:  Dawson M.J.S. 1, Greening P.B.T. 2, Greenwood W.J.H. 2, Guscott J.C. 2, Healey A.S. 2, Hill R.A. 1, Luger D.D. 2, Perry M.B. 1
Conv:  Grayson P.J. 12
Pen K.:  Grayson P.J. 4

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