Week four of Rugby World Cup 2023 saw contenders start to make their push towards the finals.
The All Blacks were the standouts with a brutal victory over Italy in Lyon.
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Scotland were similarly impressive against Romania, whilst Fiji needed a second-half comeback to beat Georgia.
As for the Wallabies, they rebounded after two tough defeats with victory over Portugal.
Rugby.com.au recaps every game from the weekend.
Fullback Baltazar Amaya has scored two tries as Uruguay overturned a halftime deficit to defeat Namibia 36-26 for a bonus-point win, sending the African underdogs home from another World Cup without a victory.
The South Americans also scored tries through German Kessler, Santiago Arata and winger Bautista Basso as they claimed a fourth World Cup victory in their history with one final pool match against the All Blacks to come.
Namibia made a great start with a try from Gerswin Mouton in the opening minute and led 20-12 at the break but were unable to sustain their level in the second half and fell to a 26th World Cup defeat going back to their debut in 1999.
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Quotes
“This match was very tough because we lost against Italy, which was part of our tournament goals. The players were incredible and I am very proud of them. We couldn't achieve that first goal (to beat Italy), but at no time did this team give up, trusting the work they have been doing and knowing that mentally it would be difficult.” - Uruguay coach Esteban Meneses
"Discipline in the end of the day had an influence on the result, obviously. We were in control first half, we only conceded six penalties. We wanted to have a fast start which we did. Compare that with the second half, we conceded 13 penalties in total. Test match rugby, that takes your momentum and control, everything, away.” - Namibia coach Allister Coetzee
Scores
Uruguay 36 (TRIES: Amaya 2, Kessler, Arata, Basso; CONS: Etcheverry 3. Berchesi; PENS: Etcheverry) def Namibia 26 (TRIES: Mouton, Greyling; CONS: Swanepoel 2; PENS: Swanepoel 2)
Japan have boosted their chances of reaching the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals for the second successive time as they beat an ill-disciplined Samoa 28-22 in Toulouse, a result which sent England through to the last eight.
Both teams came into the match with one win from two games and the early exchanges were even until Japan struck through Pieter Labuschagne in the 14th minute.
Michael Leitch and Kazuki Himeno added further tries, and 13 points from the boot of five-eighth Rikiya Matsuda gave the Brave Blossoms enough breathing space to hold off a late fightback from 14-man Samoa.
The Samoans had a try on the board from Seilala Lam before winger Ben Lam was sent from the field in the 47th minute. They scored two more - from Duncan Paia'aua and former Wallaby Christian Leali'ifano - in the final quarter but it was not enough to overhaul Japan.
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Quotes
“Today just means got an opportunity to get to a quarter-final. It was a test match we had to win, and that’s what we’ve done today. The game itself was a real arm wrestle. Samoa’s players are big and physical and it was difficult for us, with the brand of rugby we play.” - Japan coach Jamie Joseph
"We didn’t execute as well as we should have and Japan were able to exploit that part of our game. If we had held on to the ball a bit more we would have been able to put ourselves in a position to score more points. It’s a trend in our last three games which we haven’t managed to nail. That’s definitely an area myself and the coaching team takes full responsibility for.” Samoa coach Seilala Mapusua
Scores
Japan 28 (TRIES: Labuschagne, Leitch, Himeno; CONS: Matsuda 2; PENS: Matsuda 3) def Samoa 22 (TRIES: Lam, Paia’aua, Leali’ifano; CONS: Leali’ifano 2; PENS: Leuila)
The All Blacks have sent a message to the rest of the World Cup with a 96-17 win over Italy in Lyon
The Kiwis were ruthless in their 14-try performance, dominating an Italian side that had its eyes on a shock upset heading into the game.
The Italians never stood a chance as the New Zealanders came out with a point to prove.
Scrumhalf Aaron Smith had a hat-trick inside the first 30 minutes, joined in kind by a double from captain Ardie Savea.
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Quotes
"Really satisfied, really good performance. It felt a little bit strange having the gap after the Namibia game. We did a lot of hard work and this was the game we prepared well for. World Cups are full of games where there's a bit of an edge to them and we certainly had an edge to that performance.” - All Blacks coach Ian Foster
Look, what can you say, it turned into a bit of a glorified training run for them, didn't it? They beat us up at the breakdown. What happened? We weren't good enough, they were too good. I thought they were pretty outstanding tonight in their carrying and their cleanout work. We've got to pick up the pieces, which we will. It was just not a very good day at the office." - Italy coach Kieran Crowley
Scores
New Zealand 96 (TRIES: Jordan 2, Smith 3, Telea, Savea 2, Retallick, Papalii, Coles 2, McKenzie, Roigard; CONS: Mo’unga 9, McKenzie 4) def Italy 17 (TRIES: Capuozzo, Ioane; CONS: Allan, Varney; PENS: Allan)
Fly-half Nicolas Sanchez scored 20 points as Argentina beat Chile 59-5 on Saturday in Nantes to remain in contention for a place in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.
Sanchez, 34, celebrated his 100th Test with a perfect goal-kicking display and a try to set up a winner-takes-all clash with Japan next Sunday back at this Stade de la Beaujoire.
Whoever claims victory will join England from Pool D in the last eight, where they will in all likelihood play Wales or Fiji.
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Quotes
"Every week we start from scratch, who is best to line up. We can always change things. A World Cup is a tournament not like any other. The level of preparation and training need to be sufficient to put the team at the right level. Looking forward to Japan, they will be trying to qualify for the quarter-finals but so will we. We are hungry, we want to win. There are no guarantees, we need to prepare to be at the level we need to be in order to win.” - Argentina coach Michael Cheika
For our first experience there are positive elements as everything is new. I think we got a lot more positives than negatives out of this. We prepared for this as players and staff. We have never had months together before, and then having games every week. We had 55 people focused on the same goal game and we have tried to put Chilean rugby in a better place.” - Chile coach Pablo Lemoine
Scores
Argentina 59 (TRIES: Sanchez, Gonzalez 2, Creepy, Bogado, Isgro, Ruiz, Carreras; CONS: Sanchez 6, Carreras 2; PENS: Sanchez) def Chile 5 (TRIES: Dussaillant)
Anxious and error-prone Fiji fought back to beat fading Georgia 17-12 on Saturday and remain on course for the World Cup quarter-finals, pushing Australia to the brink of elimination.
Fiji scored two second-half tries as they rebounded from a nine-point half-time deficit to tighten their grip on second place in Group C, but their failure to collect a bonus point left Australia with a slight hope of avoiding a first ever group-stage e
With a quarter-final place beckoning, Fiji started anxiously in Bordeaux, messing up restarts, losing lineouts, giving away penalties and paying the habitual price for their high-risk passing attack and repeatedly dropping the ball.
Yet Georgia also showed nerves as they blew gilt-edged touchdown chances at each end of the half.
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Quotes
"All credit to Georgia, they played really well in the first half. We were a bit on the back foot, we didn't help ourselves with the basics. We said, 'Let's get back to the basics. Get an advantage line, hold the ball and put some pressure back on them’." - Fiji coach Simon Raiwalui
“Obviously I cannot be happy about the final result today, but I am really proud of my team. They did their best, they gave everything, it was not enough to win the match. Unfortunately in the first half we had to change some players, there were many injuries and in the second half as well, so that had a huge impact and we paid the price.” Georgia coach Levan Maisashvili
Scores
Fiji 17 (TRIES: Nayacalevu, Habosi; CONS: Lomani 2; PENS: Lomani) def Georgia 12 (PENS: Matkava 2, Niniashvili 2)
Darcy Graham scored four tries among his country's 12 as Scotland maintained their hopes of reaching the knockout stage of the Rugby World Cup by thrashing Romania 84-0 on Saturday.
Scotland sit third in Pool B after the bonus-point win and head to Paris to face the world's top-ranked team Ireland next Saturday.
Scotland comfortably led 42-0 at the interval as the omnipresent 26-year-old Graham claimed two further tries, and the crucial bonus point, either side of No. 8 Matt Fagerson crashing over, for Scotland's biggest ever half-time advantage.
Things were made even harder for the "Oaks", who had conceded more than 300 points across their previous five internationals, as hooker Robert Irimescu, flanker Florian Rosu and full-back Marius Simionescu were shown yellow cards before the interval.
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Quotes
“(Darcy Graham) is someone that is going to create opportunities for scoring tries, a lot of that is his willingness to get on the ball. He called a lot of the balls because he got back off the ground to be in position, he saw space.” - Scotland coach Gregor Townsend
"Unfortunately that is the difference between us and Scotland, the reality between us and a tier-one team. We lost the equilibrium with the yellow cards. That made the difference.” - Romania coach Eugen Apjok
Scores
Scotland 84 (TRIES: Watson, Price, Graham 5, Fagerson, Harris, Smith, Healy, Matthews, Darge; CONS: Healy 11; PENS: Horne) def Romania 0
The Wallabies did what they had to do to keep their World Cup hopes alive, defeating Portugal 34-14 in Saint Etienne.
They now need 'Os Lobos' to defeat Fiji by eight points or more next Monday (AEDT) to qualify for the quarter-finals.
The win was built off a strong first half thanks to three tries in the space of seven minutes.
Fraser McReight's try sealed the win after the break, although Portugal never stopped applying pressure on Eddie Jones' side.
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Quotes
"We only had one objective this week and that was to be alive and we are still alive. I am not interested in conjecture about Portugal and Fiji next week. I am pleased for the players. They've worked really hard, as they have all tournament, and they deserve some accolades for this performance today." - Australia coach Eddie Jones
"This team still has some things to improve. But we have a lot of pride after playing against such a team. We evolved a lot after two months of preparation. They managed to challenge this Australia team, that's fantastic." Portugal coach Patrice Lagisquet
Scores
Australia 34 (TRIES: Arnold, Porecki, Bell, McReight, Koroibete; CONS: Donaldson 3; PENS: Donaldson) def Portugal 14 (TRIES: Bettencourt, Cerqueira; CONS: Marques 2)
Defending champions South Africa have scored seven tries and moved a step closer to the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals with a bruising 49-18 victory over impressive Tonga.
Many of the 60,387 in the crowd were rooting for the Pacific islanders, but while Tonga put on a brave showing, South Africa fed off their errors and had too much guile and experience.
The Springboks scored tries through Cobus Reinach, Canan Moodie, Jessie Kriel, Deon Fourie, Willie le Roux, Marco van Staden and Kwagga Smith in an error-strewn display not helped by the physicality of the Tongans.
The latter crossed three times - through barrelling captain Ben Tameifuna, Fine Inisi and Patrick Pellegrini - the first time in 17 World Cup games the Boks have conceded three tries.
South Africa's win took them top of Pool B with 15 points and into a strong position to qualify for the last eight, but they must wait for the outcome of the clash between Ireland and Scotland next Saturday.
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Quotes
"We'll have to wait. The other pool gets sorted out on Friday night and our pool gets sorted out on Saturday so it's a waiting game. Our hookers got some decent game time in a proper test match against some good opposition so it's one step closer to getting minutes under their belts." - South Africa coach Jacques Nienaber
"One of the main things we stressed before the game was putting on a performance that everyone would be proud of and that was one of them. That is what rugby is all about. You want to play against the best. That's what makes the good players get out of bed so it was a fantastic experience for everyone today." Tonga coach Toutai Kefu
Scores
South Africa 49 (TRIES: Reinach, Moodie, Fourie, Kriel, Le Roux, van Staden, Smith; CONS: Pollard 4, Libbok 3) def Tonga 18 (TRIES: Tameifuna, Inisi, Pellegrini; CONS: Havili)
