Rugby World Cup 2011

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Wallabies race away from Russia

NELSON, 1 Oct. - A makeshift Australia team took just 15 minutes to secure the bonus point they were seeking as they raced to a 47-5 lead over Russia at Trafalgar Park on Saturday.

Flanker David Pocock celebrated his return from injury by bagging two tries as the Russians struggled to cope with the Wallabies' running game.

Fellow back row Ben McCalman and hooker Stephen Moore also got in on the act as the Australians ran in seven tries and piled on the points at a rate of more than one a minute.

With injuries forcing coach Robbie Deans to shuffle his line-up, the main priority was a bonus-point win without any further mishap. And his players delivered the first part of the deal in record time.

Radike Samo, making his first start on the wing since 1999, put in a powerful burst down the right that set up Berrick Barnes to sidestep his way to the tryline after six minutes.

Two minutes later Barnes was again in the action as he kicked ahead for Drew Mitchell to score his ninth Rugby World Cup try, after a sniping break by scrum half Luke Burgess from inside his own 22. James O'Connor nailed the conversion from out wide.

Neat offloading

Three minutes later the Wallabies got their third after a deft kick pass from Quade Cooper to Samo, who again showed his strength before some neat offloading saw number 8 Ben McCalman gallop in under the posts.

The bonus point arrived in just the 15th minute when David Pocock barged through some ineffective tackling after an Australian lineout to touch down.

Pocock stormed over for his second seven minutes later and O'Connor slotted another easy conversion to make the score 33-0.

Just when it seemed likely to turn embarrassing the Russians found new resolve and after some concerted pressure wing Vladimir Ostroushko scored out wide on the right after pouncing on ball spilled by Burgess.

But the Wallabies struck back immediately when Stephen Moore got on the end of a Pocock break to score his try and Adam Ashley-Cooper dived on a kick through by Cooper for a try that O'Connor converted with his sixth successful kick of the day.

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Half Time:

Tonga 13 - 6 France

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Tonga shock France

Tongan inside centre Andrew Ma'ilei in action against France in Wellington

WELLINGTON, 1 Oct. -Tonga shocked France 19-14 in a Pool A match at the Wellington Regional Stadium on Saturday.

France showed little during a match dominated territorially by Tonga, with so many promising moves snuffed out by keen Tongan tackling or poor decision-making by the French.

The French did score a try in the final seconds to bring up the final score, but it was too little too late for Les Bleus in the match. But in gaining a bonus point, France do go through to the quarter-finals.

Tonga had scored their only try of the match in the 27th minute when scrum-half Taniela Moa breached the France backline with a fine run.

From the resultant tackle-ball Morath kicked diagonally for Sukanaivalu Hufanga on the opposite wing, who collected, skirted the touchline in a French tackle, but managed to regain composure and dot down. Morath converted to give Tonga a 10-6 lead.

In the 35th minute France were penalised for offside and Morath increased Tonga's lead to 13-6, which was the half-time score and France were running out of ideas.

Tonga went 19-9 ahead in the in the 71s minute when Morath succeeded with a penalty kick to at that time to remove France from bonus point territory.;

Tonga try-scorer Hufanga was given a yellow card by referee Steve Walsh two minutes from half-time when he lifted Vincent Clerc in a tackle and dumped him on his back.

French mistakes were rife in the second spell. Dimitri Yachvili missed touch with a defensive penalty early on and such was the Tonga dominance, it took seven minutes for the French to get outside their territory.

Yachvili made some amends in the 50th minute with a successful penalty for a late tackle by Alisona Taumalolo to close the gap to 13-9

The second tip tackle of the match saw France replacement Fabrice Estebanez given a yellow card and from the resultant penalty Morath put Tonga up 16-9 with 15 minutes to play.

Les Bleus had wasted little time getting on the scoreboard at the beginning of the match, with Dimitri Yachvili slotting a penalty within the first minute as Tonga were caught offside.

Tonga equalised in the seventh minute through a penalty from Kurt Morath after France did not release the ball.

After giving up territory for some time after the equalising penalty, Tonga finally broke out of their half and were immediately awarded a penalty for French hands in the ruck, but Morath failed to give Tonga the lead with the penalty.

From the 20th minute France began to show some flair on attack and Tonga were perhaps lucky they were penalised for being offside and didn't concede a try in the 23rd minute. Yachvili kicked the simple penalty to put France ahead 6-3.

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Half Time

Scotland 9 - 3 England

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Moody hails England comeback

AUCKLAND, 1 Oct. - Captain Lewis Moody hailed England's second-half fightback after his side beat Scotland 16-12 in a thrilling Pool B match at Eden Park on Sunday night.

The Scots held a 9-3 lead at the interval which Chris Paterson extended with a 54th-minute penalty but Jonny Wilkinson landed a drop goal and penalty for England before Ashton's converted try sealed his side's victory.

"It was a fantastic performance by our boys," said Moody. "We knew Scotland would come out with all their fire, but in the second half we countered it and came out on top in a few of the scrums.

"Scotland played a fantastic match and made it incredibly difficult for us but we came out on the right side in the end."

Scotland fly half Ruaridh Jackson hobbled off injured in the fourth minute to be replaced by Dan Parks.

Full back Paterson kicked the Scots ahead four minutes later after Dan Cole was penalised at a scrum.

No mistake

England were struggling at set pieces and when they conceded an eighth penalty after 15 minutes Parks extended the lead to six points, the TMO confirming his pot shot from 10 metres inside the English half had cleared the crossbar.

Wilkinson saw an 18th-minute penalty drift left and another kick from him fell short of the target three minutes later. Wilkinson got a chance to make amends almost immediately when Scotland were penalised at the breakdown but missed again.

The fly half made no mistake when the Scots gave away a fourth penalty, getting his team off the mark with a well-struck kick from the left.

But the Scots restored their six-point advantage when Parks landed a drop goal before the break. An indifferent night with the boot got worse for Wilkinson three minutes after the restart when he missed a drop goal attempt from in front of the posts.

Paterson landed his second penalty of the night after the English gave away yet another scrum penalty.

Wilkinson found his shooting boots to claw his side back to within three points when he sent over a superb drop goal followed minutes later by a sweetly-struck penalty.

Scotland's hopes of qualifying took a huge knock when Ashton got on the end of a superb long pass from Toby Flood to go over at the corner. Flood added the extras with a terrific conversion from the touchline.

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Dan Carter ruled out of RWC with groin injury

Dan Carter limps off during training and is ruled out of RWC 2011

WELLINGTON, 2 Oct. - New Zealand fly half Daniel Carter has been ruled out of Rugby World Cup 2011 with a serious groin injury.

Coach Graham Henry told a press conference at the team hotel that the 29-year-old record points scorer seriously injured the tendon in his left groin during kicking practice at the captain's run training session on Saturday.

Carter was initially withdrawn from the All Blacks final Pool A match against Canada on Sunday but later scans revealed that the injury was serious enough to rule Carter out of the whole tournament.

Carter was due to captain New Zealand for the first time in the absence of Richie McCaw, who has an injured foot.

Colin Slade will take Carter's place at No.10 while hooker Andrew Hore will be captain for the first time.

Carter, who missed the earlier Pool A match against Japan with a back injury, has played in 85 Tests for New Zealand and scored 1,250 points. This was his third Rugby World Cup.

Aaron Cruden has been named as Carter's fly half replacement in the New Zealand squad, subject to RWCL approval

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Half Time

Georgia 7 - 5 Argentina

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Georgia give Argentina an almighty scare

PALMERSTON NORTH, 2 Oct. - Argentina were made to scrap every inch of the way by a determined Georgia before running out 25-7 winners at Arena Manawatu on Sunday.

Georgia had given the Pumas a scare by leading 7-5 at the break before Felipe Contepomi restored Argentina’s lead with a penalty in the 52nd minute.

Contepomi, who missed two penalties and a conversion attempt in the first half of this final Pool B match, slotted another penalty to make it 11-7 going into the final quarter.

A Marcelo Bosch penalty attempt went well wide, before Argentina put the match out of reach.

A bullocking run by long-striding flanker Julio Farias Cabello set up the field position for the Argentine backs to sweep wide, Contepomi finishing off with a try, which he converted.

Agustín Gosio provided the icing on the cake with a 79th-minute try, converted by Bosch, after a neat kick ahead by Juan José Imhoff.

With Argentina needing only a bonus point to guarantee their place in the quarter-finals, the early exchanges were predictably tight, and the first points did not come until the 32nd minute - the longest any match of Rugby World Cup 2011 has gone without a score.

The match came alive in the 32nd minute when left wing Imhoff crossed to put Argentina 5-0 ahead.

Lasha Khmaladze hit back in the 39th minute, full back Malkhaz Urjukashvili converting, to send Georgia into the interval ahead.

Malkhaz Urjukashvili, who had missed a penalty, converted.

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Half Time

New Zealand 37 - 8 Canada

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Clinical All Blacks brush aside Canada

WELLINGTON, 2 Oct. - Stand-in skipper Andrew Hore admitted New Zealand face a battle to replace Dan Carter despite a resounding 79-15 Pool A win over Canada at Wellington Regional Stadium on Sunday.

Hours after the influential fly half was ruled out of Rugby World Cup 2011 with a groin injury, the All Blacks ran in 12 tries - including four by wing Zac Guildford - to give next Sunday’s quarter-final opponents Argentina plenty to think about.

But Hore said world record points scorer Carter would be missed. "You can't lie about it, he's going to be hard to replace, he's a special player," said hooker Hore. "We just have to get around there and make sure all 29 of us get in there and make it easy for the guy wearing number 10.

"I think we played pretty well today and if we can continue that we will go a long way to winning this thing."

Carter’s replacement Colin Slade had an erratic afternoon with the boot and limped off after an hour but Piri Weepu came off the bench and immediately slotted a conversion from the left touchline to suggest coach Graham Henry still has options.

Although the Canucks defended bravely and grabbed two tries of their own, the damage was done in a first half that featured a Guildford hat-trick and ended with the All Blacks 37-8 ahead.

Squeezed over

Slade’s early nerves allowed Canada to take the lead within a minute when his clearance kick was charged down and Ander Monro slotted a penalty that resulted from the fallout.

Slade made amends five minutes later by darting through the Canada defence before throwing a long, well-weighted pass to Guildford, who just squeezed over in the corner.

Flanker Victor Vito and right wing Israel Dagg also touched down and Slade kicked a penalty before Guildford got his second by showing great speed to capitalise on a fumble by Canada wing Conor Trainor.

His pace was again in evidence four minutes later when he sprinted clear to put Mils Muliaina in for a try in his 99th Test, and he was on the end of a move sparked by a clever kick-pass by Sonny Bill Williams to seal his hat-trick.

Trainor narrowed the gap for Canada by scoring a try in the left corner on the stroke of half-time.

Straight after the break Trainor repeated the dose by winning a race to the line from a kick ahead in broken play and Monro converted to make it 37-15.

Reasserted authority

But the All Blacks soon reasserted their authority when Conrad Smith took a pass from Williams and offloaded for scrum half Jimmy Cowan to score near the posts.

When Muliaina and Kieran Read were replaced after 50 minutes flanker Jerome Kaino moved round to number 8 and immediately took advantage of slack tackling to score the All Blacks’ eighth try, which Slade converted to make it 51-15.

Williams popped up on the left wing to beat the Canada cover for the ninth and Kaino got his second when the New Zealand scrum drove over beneath the posts.

Weepu converted both and put in a kick ahead to produce Guildford’s fourth, for which he also added the two extra points to make it 72-15.

Weepu’s influence was also in evidence at the close when his inside pass put Vito in under the posts. He made no mistake with the conversion.