The opening weekend of Rugby World Cup 2023 is underway as teams begin their campaign.
There were some massive wins across the matches and some high-quality Rugby as 16 teams played in their opening match of the tournament.
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France and South Africa established their World Cup ambitions whilst the likes of Chile played in their first ever game
Rugby.com.au recaps every game from the weekend.
Full-back Thomas Ramos kicked 17 points to help France to a thrilling 27-13 victory over New Zealand in Friday's opening game of the Rugby World Cup.
Ramos kicked five penalties and a conversion at a sold-out Stade de France as the hosts, leading contenders for the title, started the tournament in style.
Winger Mark Telea claimed two tries for three-time winners All Blacks, who had led 13-9 with more than half an hour to play but went on to lose their first ever World Cup pool game in hot and humid conditions in Paris.
Read more about the match here
"It was important to get off to a good start after all the work we've put in preparing for this match. We were under a lot of pressure in the first half, and we found it hard to break free. At the end of the day, it's a heavy score in our favour. We didn't expect this atmosphere. It was very tense, even in the stands. We're not used to this kind of atmosphere." - France coach Fabien Galthié
“It was obviously a tight game. At half-time both teams were right in it. I thought they squeezed us in that second half and we struggled to really get a lot of momentum. When we did get down there we created some opportunities but we weren’t quite good enough. It was a see-sawing game, but you’ve got to take your hat off to them. In the third quarter they really squeezed us with possession.” - New Zealand coach Ian Foster
France 27 (TRIES: Penaud, Jaminet; CONS: Ramos; PENS: Ramos 5) def New Zealand 13 (TRIES: Telea 2; PENS: Mo'unga)
Italy have cruised away with a 52-8 victory over Namibia in Saint Etienne.
The Italians didn’t have their own way, with the Namibians pushing Italy in the first half as they trailed 17-8 at the break.
However, Italy ran away with the contest in the second half with tries from second-row Dino Lamb, wing Ange Capuozzo, hooker Hame Faiva, back-row Manuel Zuliani and centre Paolo Odogwu.
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Quotes
"If you'd given me 50 points before the game I would have grabbed them. But we turned over about 22 balls and you can't afford to do that. But it was pretty hot out there and the boys are pretty gassed so we'll take it and we'll move on.” - Italy coach Kieran Crowley
"We didn't always get the ball we wanted - we got scrappy ball. We didn't execute what we planned every time and we were put under the pump in the set phases, the mauls and the scrums. They have heaps of experience. It's a great game to learn from.” - Namibia captain Johan Deysel
Italy 52 (TRIES: Odogwu, Zuliani, Faiva, Capuozzo, Lamb, Garbisi, Cannone; CONS: Allan 7; PENS Allan) DEF Namibia 8 (TRIES: Mouton; CONS: Swanepoel)
Ireland have made a statement with a 82-8 win over Romania.
The Romanians had their eye on a dream upset when Hinckley Vaovasa put Gabriel Rupanu over inside the first two minutes.
This only angered the world number one ranked side, responding almost immediately with the first of five first-half tries through scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park.
They then crossed for seven further tries in the second half in a thumping performance.
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Quotes
"It was difficult. Credit to Romania. You saw the way they rocked up. In the first two or three minutes they put us under the sticks. It was a right wake-up call for us - 'welcome to World Cup 2023', you know what I mean? Every team is here to play their very best and I thought Romania were absolutely that today” - Player-of-the-Match Peter O'Mahony
We knew it would be a tough game, I’m happy for the good start, happy for the boys to score one try against the No.1 team in the rankings. We stayed in the game for 25 minutes and after that we lose a bit of control. When we get tired the mistake is coming.” - Romanian head coach Eugen Apjok
Ireland 82 (TRIES: Gibson-Park, Keenan, Beirne 2, Aki 2, Sexton 2, Herring, O’Mahony 2, McCarthy; CONS: Sexton 7, Crowley 4) def Romania 8 (TRIES: Rupanu; CONS: Rupanu)
The Wallabies have started their Rugby World Cup campaign on a winning note with a 35-15 win over Georgia
Fullback Ben Donaldson had a breakout performance at the back, contributing 25 points that included a double.
In search of their first win of the year, the Australians started fast when Jordan Petaia scored in the first two minutes.
It allowed Eddie Jones' side to build a commanding 21-3 half-time lead.
Whilst Georgia showed some fight with a pair of tries, a second-half double to Donaldson was enough to close out the game.
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Quotes
"We’ve always been confident about where we’re doing. We’ve seen how hard the players have worked and you don’t come out and play like that at the start if you’re not confident.” - Wallabies coach Eddie Jones
“The game-changing factor was we got penalised too many times at the beginning and teams like Australia don’t let you off so a good learning for us. We’re going to learn a lot from here.” - Georgia captain Merab Sharikadze
Australia 35 (TRIES: Donaldson 2, Petaia, Nawaqanitawase; CONS: Donaldson 3; PENS: Donaldson 3) def Georgia 15: (TRIES: Ivanishvili, Gigashvili; CONS: Abzhandadze; PENS: Matkava
George Ford has kicked a 14-men England side to victory over Argentina.
England were reduced to 14 early when Tom Curry’s high shot was upgraded to a red.
However, the boot of Ford kept extending the lead against a Pumas side that struggled on attack.
He kicked three drop goals in the space of ten minutes before three more penalties sealed the win.
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Quotes
"It's always planned. It's a great weapon for us, especially when the ball's a bit greasy. Also we went a man down early on and we had to come away with as many points as possible when we had field position. We managed to do that.” flyhalf George Ford
"Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I think we let the play get too stop and start. England played the circumstances very well and full credit to them." - Argentina coach Michael Cheika
England 27 (PENS: Ford 6; DROP GOALS: Ford 3) def Argentina 10 (TRIES: Bruni; CONS: Boffelli; PENS: Boffelli)
Second-row Amato Fakatava scored two tries as Japan defeated Chile 42-12 with a bonus-point performance at the Stadium de Toulouse in Pool D on Sunday.
Fly-half Rodrigo Fernandez scored Chile's first ever Rugby World Cup try but Fakatava grabbed his first shortly afterwards before wing Jone Naikabula added a second after Chilean prop Matias Dittus was shown a yellow card.
Chile were again reduced to 14 men after captain Martin Sigren was sin-binned before half-time and Fakatava added another try to give Japan a 21-7 interval lead.
Brave Blossoms centre Dylan Riley also received a yellow card before number eight Alfonso Escobar reduced Chile's deficit with their second try but scores from flanker Michael Leitch, inside-centre Ryoto Nakamura and replacement second-row Warner Dearns embellished Japan's victory margin.
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Quotes
“It was exactly what we thought we would get from Chile. It’s their first World Cup, they are a proud country and we were always going to get a spirited, hearty performance, but they exceeded that by a long way and put us under a lot of pressure. We had to battle for everything we got. I am really proud of our guys. To score 40 points in the end if a big victory for us but we have no doubt that we have been in a test match.” Japan coach Jamie Joseph
"It was tough but I think it was a great start. It is difficult when you play your first game of a World Cup, especially against Japan. They are a team with a lot of ambition. We were OK for 60 minutes but in the last 20 minutes we missed some experience to manage the game and Japan were amazing with their efficiency." Chile coach Pablo Lemoine
Defending champions South Africa got their Rugby World Cup 2023 campaign off to a winning start by beating Scotland 18-3 at Stade de Marseille on Sunday.
The teams went into the break with the Springboks only 6-3 ahead after two Mannie Libbok penalties and one from Scotland fly-half Finn Russell.
However, in the second half the pace and power of South Africa’s game told as first Pieter-Steph du Toit muscled his way over from close range, before Kurt-Lee Arendse got on the end of Libbok’s pinpoint cross-field kick to dot down in the corner.
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Quotes
"Scotland are a good team, they are not number five in the world for nothing. We were only leading 6-3 at half-time after having some dominance. They are a nuggety team and hats off to them. We had to grind the win out.” - South Africa coach Jacques Nienaber
"We defended well in the first half and grew into the set-piece and I thought we would have kicked on in the second half, but they won the third quarter hands down. A lot of that was down to their good play but also our inaccuracy.” - Scotland coach Gregor Townsend
South Africa 18 (TRIES: Du Toit, Arendse; CONS: de Klerk; PENS: Libbok 2) def Scotland 3 (PENS: Russell)
Wales opened their Rugby World Cup 2023 campaign with a nail-biting 32-26 win over Pool B opponents Fiji in front of 41,274 mostly Welsh supporters at Stade de Bordeaux.
The opening half saw both sides score two tries apiece with Josh Adams crossing first for Wales before Fiji hit back with scores from captain Waisea Nayacalevu and flanker Lekima Tagitagivalu, George North putting the Welsh back in front near the half-hour mark.
The second half opened to more errors from Fiji as Louis Rees-Zammit scored in the 48th minute, allowing Dan Biggar to convert and stretch Wales' lead to 11 points.
A yellow card in the 64th minute for Fiji's Lekima Tagitagivalu was immediately followed by a Welsh try to substitute Elliot Dee which appeared to put the outcome beyond doubt but a late resurgence from Fiji saw Peni Ravai cross and only a Semi Radradra knock-on in the dying seconds allowed Wales to cling on for the win.
"It was absolutely exhausting. The last 10 minutes felt like the clock never moved. We put everything into it, Fiji came strong at the end, but I’m really thrilled for this group of players that we managed to see it through because the work we’ve put in over the past few months has just been incredible. It puts us in such a good position in the group. I’m just absolutely drained." - Wales flyhalf Dan Bigger
"It was a good game. We were just not clinical enough. We had two or three try-scoring opportunities and we had two disallowed - we have got to take our chances. Well done to Wales, but we made too many mistakes." Fiji coach Simon Raiwalui
Wales 32 (TRIES: Adams, North, Rees-Zammit, Dee; CONS: Bigger 3; PENS: Bigger 2) def Fiji 26 (TRIES: Nayacalevu, Tagitagivalu, Tuisova, Doge; CONS: Lomani 2, Tela
