Rugby World Cup 2011

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Thirteen-try All Blacks beat Japan

HAMILTON, 16 Sept. - New Zealand overwhelmed Japan 83-7 in their Pool A match at Waikato Stadium on Friday night.

The All Blacks had too much power and control for the Brave Blossoms, who attempted to play the game at pace, but in so doing made too many basic errors.

Japan were game in the tackle, but the size and strength of the All Blacks meant their efforts often went unrewarded

New Zealand led 38-0 at half-time. The big lead had been built by tries from Richard Kahui, Jerome Kaino, Keven Mealamu, Conrad Smith, Andy Ellis and Colin Slade, who added four conversions.

Kahui, with his second, Sonny Bill Williams for his first All Black try, Isaia Toeava, Andrew Hore and Ma'a Nonu touched down in the second half.

In the middle of these came some joy for Japanese supporters when Hirotoki Onozawa intercepted an attempted offload from Slade and ran 40 metres to dot down.

A good conversion from Murray Williams made the score at that stage 59-7.

Japan got over the All Blacks line again in the 70th minute, but the try was ruled out for a forward pass.

But the All Blacks were not going to be stopped. The penultimate act of the game was a slick move by New Zealand that ended with flanker Adam Thomson scoring, and two minutes later Williams scored his second try of the night by chasing down a speculative kick to the tryline.

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all blacks allday..

all blacks everyday...

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Australia's Pocock ruled out of Ireland match

AUCKLAND, 17 Sept. - Australia's star flanker David Pocock has been ruled out of Saturday's match against Ireland after aggravating an existing problem in his lower back at training on Friday.

Although not considered a serious injury the discomfort is enough that he has been ruled unfit to take the field in Australia's second Pool C match to be played at Eden Park in Auckland.

“It’s more of an on-going irritation than anything serious, said coach Robbie Deans. "Scans have shown nothing sinister, but David is a key member of our group. We would rather give him a bit of time to get it right before putting him back out there”.

Pocock will be replaced in the starting line-up by his Western Force teammate Ben McCalman who will start his first Test match in the openside flanker position.

Despite the loss of Pocock, a player widely regarded as one of the best in his position, Deans said he planned to give McCalman a run in the position at some point during the pool phase anyway.

"We were looking to give him an outing on the open side before our pool programme concluded, it’s now just come a bit earlier than we’d originally planned.

"He is well suited to the role, being strong around the contact area and good over the ball, which is a legacy of his time in the Australian Sevens programme. He’s looking forward to the opportunity and we believe in him."

Wycliff Palu will be brought onto the bench which signals his return to the fold after a long battle with his own injuries. The hard running Palu has not played a match for the Wallabies since the 2009 spring tour of Europe.

The match between Australia and Ireland kicks off at 20:30.

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Half Time:

Argentina 26 - 8 Romania

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Pumas give Romania the runaround

INVERCARGILL, 17 Sept. - Argentina bounced back from their narrow defeat to England by running in four first-half tries before sealing a 43-8 bonus-point win in their Pool B clash with Romania on Saturday.

Although the match was billed as a battle between the two powerful packs, the Pumas were having none of it and chose to run at every opportunity on a bright but breezy afternoon at Rugby Park Stadium.

Despite their progress being slowed by injuries and rugged Romanian resistance after the interval, they still managed to cross the whitewash twice again as they cemented their place at the top of the pool.

A week after their attritional battle with England the Pumas opened their account early.

Santiago Fernández, starting at fly half instead of injured skipper Felipe Contepomi, sliced through some slack defending in the fifth minute for a try near the posts which Martín Rodríguez converted.

Wrestling control

Four minutes later flanker Juan Manuel Leguizamón juggled a pass on the 22m line before gathering and barging over the line.

The big Romanian forwards tried to wrestle some control over the game and Tiberius Ionut Dimofte narrowed the gap to 14-3 with a penalty after 13 minutes.

But prop Juan Figallo registered Argentina's third try with just a quarter of the game gone after a quick tapped penalty by scrum half Nicolás Vergallo.

Enterprising full back and man of the match Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino exploited more holes in the Romania defence to touch down under the posts before The Oaks responded with a try out wide on the left by wing Ionel Cazan in 32nd minute.

Dogged resistance

After turning round 26-8 down, the Romanians’ tackle count kept on growing and prop Mihaita Alexandru Lazar was sin-binned in the 53rd minute after illegally stifling yet another Pumas’ attack.

Despite more dogged resistance, Juan Jose Imhoff, who had replaced right wing Gonzalo Camacho, was able to sprint clear to score under the posts just seconds before Lazar’s return - his eighth try in six Tests.

With eight minutes remaining The Oaks looked set to score a sensational try after a breakout from their own 22.

But when the ball was spilled near the Argentina line, the Pumas mounted a counter-attack of their own and ran 100m for a try by replacement Genaro Fessia that broke Romanian hearts.

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the saffies too strong for Fiji

[Buf-Phoon]

That said , listening to the Saffers Iv'e known or met, we, are the sheep inteferers , not the Kiwis

Go figure that, must have someting to do with Australia riding on the sheeps back for so long in the past

[Rancidpunx]

Ireland 15 - 6 Australia.

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South Africa turn on power against Fiji

WELLINGTON, 17 Sept. - Defending champions South Africa played Fiji-style attacking rugby to post a 49-3 win in their Pool D match and send a clear statement of intent to the rest of the competition.

With front rowers scoring two of their five tries, their try-scoring man-of-the-match second row slipping a no-look pass to his wing and a flanker chip-kicking to a centre for a try, the Springboks could have been mistaken for the usually free-running islanders.

The performance had Fiji captain Deacon Manu tipping big things for the Springboks at this competition.

"They're going to be one of the teams to beat, if not the team to beat this year," he said.

"It was a fantastic Springbok side. In my opinion it's a better side than four years ago."

Springbok captain John Smit was pleased with his team's defensive effort especially, but said it was only another step forward in a long campaign.

Too early to tell

"It's too early to tell who is setting the mark; you don't decide in week two who is going to win the World Cup," he said.

Fly half Morné Steyn scored 21 of South Africa's points with a try, five conversions and two penalties, while man of the match Danie Rossouw scored a try in a powerful performance of strong running that Fiji struggled to contain.

"It was what we needed and I'm happy to keep a team like Fiji off our try-line," said Smit, who equalled Victor Matfield's record of 108 Tests for South Africa.

The win laid to rest the ghosts of Marseille for South Africa, who had been wary of Fiji ahead of the match after their close call in the French port city at the last Rugby World Cup.

Fiji were seldom able to breach South Africa's defensive line and Springbok coach Peter de Villiers said: "One of the targets before the game was we wanted to defend our line and we did that with honours tonight."

In attack, South Africa quickly realised space was available out wide and took advantage of it with crisp passing. Flanker Heinrich Brüssow even utilised a chip kick to find centre Frans Steyn, who stepped around two defenders to score.

Stunning penalty

A stunning 57m penalty goal from long-range specialist Frans Steyn got South Africa on the scoreboard.

Having repelled Fiji's ensuing attack with strong defence, they worked the ball back downfield with a series of runs until loosehead prop Gurthrö Steenkamp powered over out wide.

His second-half replacement Tendai Mtawarira later grabbed South Africa's fifth try.

Centre Jaque Fourie equalled Bryan Habana's South Africa record of eight tries at Rugby World Cups and became the 16th player to score tries at three different tournaments - the first South Africa player to do so.

[Corzza]

That said , listening to the Saffers Iv'e known or met, we, are the sheep inteferers , not the Kiwis

Go figure that, must have someting to do with Australia riding on the sheeps back for so long in the past

Not this one. Mind you many of us do associate you aussies with sheep. Who knows. The kiwis are off loading!