Rugby World Cup 2023 is underway as teams start to build form throughout the tournament.
The second week saw a rise of the second-tier nations as Uruguay pushed France all the way, whilst Portugal went close against Wales.
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The big result was Fiji upsetting Australia in Saint Etienne, whilst on the flip side, South Africa and New Zealand recorded thumping wins.
Rugby.com.au recaps every game from the weekend.
Hosts France needed Louis Bielle-Biarrey's late try to make sure of Thursday's 27-12 victory over Uruguay in Pool A of the Rugby World Cup.
A much-changed side were made to work hard for their second win in the tournament by a spirited Los Teros before 20-year-old Bielle-Biarrey, who became Les Bleus' youngest player at a World Cup, crossed with eight minutes left in Lille.
The near 49,000-crowd were stunned into silence as Uruguay winger Nicolas Freitas caught Felipe Etcheverry’s cross-kick to score in Uruguay’s first appearance of this tournament.
The French then ran away with the game as Antoine Hastoy crossed from a set-piece move.
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Quotes
"In the heat of the moment, it's difficult. We're going to take time to recover, to share the pleasure of winning this match in front of this fantastic crowd, and the pleasure of Anthony's return as captain. There are positive elements to share.” - France coach Fabien Galthie
"I think the key element is the confidence in the group. They believe in what they're doing. We've worked on our offensive and defensive systems. From there it is all about playing. You need to trust the important work that you've done and I think that Uruguay today expressed itself, showed its colours.” - Uruguay coach Esteban Meneses
Scores
France 27 (TRIES: Hastory, Mauvaka, Bielle-Biarrey; CONS: Jaminet 3; PENS: Jaminet 2) def Uruguay 12 (TRIES: Freitas, Amaya; CONS: Etcheverry)
Live-wire scrum-half Cam Roigard had a field day to help New Zealand to an 11-try 71-3 thrashing of Namibia in the two teams’ second Pool A match in Toulouse on Friday.
Roigard scored two tries and set up two more as fly-half Damian McKenzie bagged 26 points to kick start the All Blacks' tournament after an opening 27-13 loss to hosts France.
Going into the game, New Zealand had scored 20 tries in the two Tests between the nations, averaging one every eight minutes of play.
True to form, any resistance was short-lived as Roigard crossed after just 90 seconds after a break by Leicester Fainga'anuku.
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Quotes
"A job done well, we had a clear idea around how we wanted to control the game. The forwards did a good job and enabled us to create opportunities,” - New Zealand coach Ian Foster
"I want to compliment New Zealand - they played in a way I haven't seen an All Blacks team play for a long time, the way they took the game to us and put us under pressure with their skill-set, running a bit more than usual” - Namibia coach Alister Coetzee
Scores
New Zealand 71 (TRIES: Roigard 2, McKenzie, Fainga'anuku, Lienert-Brown, de Groot, Papali'i, Havili, Clarke, Ioane; CONS: McKenzie 8) def Namibia 3 (PENS: Swanepoel)
Former Australia fly-half Christian Leali’ifano kicked 16 points as Samoa beat Chile 43-10 to start their Rugby World Cup with a bonus-point win.
The Pacific Islanders crossed five times as Duncan Paia'aua, Jonathan Taumateine and Fritz Lee scored and Sama Malolo grabbed two tries against the South Americans, who trailed by just two points at the interval.
Leali'ifano opened the scoring with an early penalty before Chile responded as prop Matias Dittus found a way over from the bottom of a ruck.
Samoa asserted their dominance after the interval and led 36-10 with 25 minutes to play as scrum-half Taumateine dived over from a delightful off-load by former basketball player McFarland, flanker Lee scored from a maul and replacement hooker Malolo claimed the bonus point.
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Quotes
“We’ve been waiting for a while to play our first game so to be able to do that and walk away with a bonus-point win is great start. Chile were amazing, we knew we would have to grind out a win, it wasn't the prettiest win but that's absolutely fine by me.” - Samoa coach Seilala Mapusua
"It is a high level and we could see and feel the difference between both teams, but I think that it's a very enriching experience for the Chilean rugby team. Even though we lost, it was a fantastic experience. That is the first objective when you are playing rugby, to learn, and I hope from one [Rugby World Cup] cycle to another we will have more opportunities to play games like this.” - Chile coach Pablo Lemoine
Scores
Samoa 43 (TRIES: Paia'aua, Taumateine, Lee, Malolo 2; CONS: Leali'ifano 2, Sopoaga; PENS: Leali'ifano 4) def Chile 10 (TRIES: Dittus; CONS: Videla; PENS: Garafulic)
Warren Gatland's Wales have taken another step towards the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, but they were given a fierce examination by minnows Portugal before winning 28-8 at Stade de Nice.
Gatland's much-changed team struggled throughout for control and fluency in the pool C contest, the highlight of which was Portugal's attacking flair.
Wing Louis Rees-Zammit, captain Dewi Lake, flanker Jac Morgan and No.8 Taulupe Faletau scored tries, while Leigh Halfpenny kicked three conversions and Sam Costelow landed one
Portugal gave as good as they got for large parts of the game, and undoubtedly deserved more than flanker Nicolas Martins' try and a Samuel Marques penalty, with Wales not collecting a bonus point until the dying seconds.
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Quotes
"We're happy with the bonus point. We tried to play too much rugby early on and didn't play more direct. Some of those players haven't had a lot of rugby. I just spoke to them in the changing room and said 'job done’." - Wales coach Warren Gatland
"I am frustrated because we gave them a few gifts in the first half and we didn’t play rugby the way we are used to. In the second half we showed a bit of face but were lacking a little bit of luck.” - Portugal coach Patrice Lagisquet
Scores
Wales 28 (TRIES: Rees-Zammit, Lake, Morgan, Faletau; CONS: Halfpenny 3, Costelow) def Portugal 8 (TRIES: Martins; CONS: Marques)
Johnny Sexton became Ireland's record points scorer as he notched 16 in their 59-16 romp over Tonga in the Rugby World Cup Pool B match on Saturday.
The 38-year-old moved to 1,090, seven more than previous holder Ronan O'Gara, setting it in style with a try he converted in the first half before sitting out the second half as defending champions South Africa loom next Saturday.
The Irish scored eight tries, man of the match Bundee Aki scoring a second successive brace in front of 15,000 raucous Irish fans in Nantes.
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Quotes
"To us, as a leader and as a player, (Johnny Sexton’s) a lot more than a points-scoring machine. How he prepares his team and gets them up for absolutely every game selflessly is more important to him and to us.” - Ireland coach Andy Farrell
"Yeah, I thought so. I don't think they are a 60-point team better than us. But you know, we were our worst enemy. We made some poor execution mistakes, some poor decisions, which probably inflated the score more than we would like. But you lose by 10 (points), you lose by 50 (points), you still lose.” - Tonga coach Toutai Kefu
Scores
Ireland 59 (TRIES: Beirne, Doris, Hansen, Sexton, Lowe, Aki 2, Herring 2; CONS: Sexton 4, Byrne 4; PENS: Sexton) def Tonga 16 (TRIES: Fifita; CONS: Havili; PENS: Havili 3)
Scrum-half Cobus Reinach and wing Makazole Mapimpi both scored hat-tricks as South Africa ran in 12 tries in a 76-0 demolition of Romania in rainy Bordeaux on Sunday.
Reinach, 33, scored three of South Africa's first five tries to complete his hat-trick in just 21 minutes - 10 minutes slower than the treble he scored against Canada in 2019.
Mapimpi also dotted down in the first half, completing his own treble with two in quick succession in the second period.
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Quotes
"I'm especially happy with a couple of things we tried. The three different hookers that we used - I thought that paid off. Then Faf [de Klerk] got some exposure at 10 - so I thought a lot of things that we wanted to get out of the game, we got. "This team has always prided themselves on their defence so extremely happy." - South Africa coach Jacques Nienaber
"We had the first 25 minutes in the Irish game and today the last 20 minutes of the first half, we can take some positives. We need to learn a lot about how to manage, especially in the breakdown." - Romania coach Eugen Apjok
Scores
South Africa 76 (TRIES: Reinach 3, Mapimpi 3, Willemse, Fourie, Williams 2, Le Roux, Penalty Try; CONS: Willemse 5; de Klerk 2) def Romania 0
Fiji have pulled off a major upset with a 22-15 win over the Wallabies in Saint Etienne.
It's their first win over the Wallabies since 1954 as they kept their World Cup hopes alive.
They started perfectly, with the boot of Simione Kuruvoli giving them a 12-8 lead at the break.
Player of the match Josua Tuisova latched onto a loose ball at the start of the second half to extend the advantage to 22-8.
Suliasi Vunivalu gave the Australians some hope late, only for Fiji to hang on for the victory.
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Quotes
"It was a good game. I think there were two teams who play a similar style. I thought we controlled the ball better today, still a few mistakes out there but really proud of the boys to come away with the win." - Fiji coach Simon Raiwalui
"Obviously disappointed, we started the game very uncharacteristically. We've been really sharp at the start of games and played with a fair bit of pace and precision and today we were sloppy." - Australia coach Eddie Jones
Scores
Fiji 22 (TRIES: Tuisova; CONS: Kuruvoli; PENS: Kuruvoli 4, Lomani) def Australia 15 (TRIES: Nawaqanitawase, Vunivalu; CONS: Donaldson; PENS: Donaldson)
England have continued their advance towards the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals by toppling Japan 34-12 but a messy performance that came alive in the the second half will have done little to worry the tournament's heavyweights.
Lewis Ludlam, Courtney Lawes, Freddie Steward and Joe Marchant touched down and it was only when their fullback had collected a George Ford chip and stormed over in the 67th minute that they looked comfortable.
Lawes' try came after the ball had taken a comical bounce off Joe Marler's head and while England celebrated their first World Cup tries since their 2019 semi-final victory over New Zealand, a madcap Sunday evening in Nice posed fresh questions.
Early in the second half they were booed by their own fans as they continued to kick the ball away at every opportunity, only to then throw the kitchen sink at enterprising opponents ranked 14th in the world.
The ambition paid off and with Ben Earl and Steward propelling them forward as well as impetus coming from Marcus Smith's arrival off the bench, they stormed out of sight.
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Quotes
"I'm really pleased for the players. I'm really pleased for the supporters here tonight. We've got a fantastic travelling support and they spend an awful lot of money to follow this team and we want to make sure they have good nights. Tonight it was really tough, we got a bonus point so we're really pleased with that." - England coach Steve Borthwick
"For my team, I'm very proud of them. We created a lot of opportunities, we just made too many mistakes. England put us under a lot of pressure but there were times I thought it was a real arm-wrestle, we just needed to capitalise on those opportunities and we couldn't do it." - Japan coach Jamie Joseph.
Scores
England 34 (TRIES: Ludlam, Lawes, Steward, Marchant; CONS: Ford 4; PENS: Ford 2) def Japan 12 (PENS: Matsuda 4)
