Round-Up: Day 10-14

Surprise results were well and truly absent from the second round of games as the tournaments giants marched on towards the knock-out stages.

England remain unbeaten in the group stages, despite another below-par performance against Georgia. Two tries apiece for Chris Ashton and Shontayne Hape helped England to a 41-10.

The performance was certainly an improvement on the opening game, but the theme of indiscipline at the breakdown remained, preventing England from reaching anything close to their best.

There were glimpses of it however, Hape’s second try followed some good phase play and was finished in clinical style by the London Irish centre.

Manu Tuilagi burst through untouched to score under the posts early in the second half; the Samoan born centre now has three tries in four international appearances. Chris Ashton’s timely return to form was capped by his trademark ‘Ash Splash,’ and will provide the management with encouragement as they build towards the Tournaments latter stages.

But England will know that they have plenty to work on if they are to reach anywhere close to the heights of 2003. But two wins out of two is all that matters for the Johno’s men, with the stronger performances, hopefully just around the corner. The Six Nations campaign showed that the big performance is in there and is likely to appear as soon as the penalty count is reduced.

Wales got their World Cup up and running with a 17-10 victory over Samoa; Shane Williams scored the only try of the game with just fifteen minutes remaining to boost Wales’ chances of making it into the quarter-finals. James Hook and Rhys Priestland added two penalties each to cap a good performance against a strong Samoan outfit.

Vincent Clerc scored a superb hat-trick as France overcame a resilient Canada 46-19. The Canadians trailed by only nine points at the break and looked to be pushing the French all the way. However, France’s class overpowered Canada in the latter stages as they secured a comfortable bonus point win.

Italy scored nine tries in a resounding 53-17 win against Russia. Giulio Tonialatti and Tommasso Benvenuti scored twice each as the Italians cruised to a bonus point win.

Tonga secured their first win of the tournament with a 31-18 victory over Japan. The south sea islanders scored three tries and Kurt Morath kicked 16 points to keep hopes of a quarter-final place alive, however slim.

Reigning champions South Africa romped to an 87-0 destruction of Namibia. The Springboks scored twelve unanswered tries as they trounced the African minnows. Bryan Habana set a new try scoring record for South Africa as he crossed for his 37^th international try.