The opening round of fixtures from the pool stages of the 2011 Rugby World Cup are in the bag and while every result has gone to plan their could have been shocks along the way.
New Zealand kicking things off with a subpar performance but still managed to run in six tries, four in an impressive first half but Graham Henry will not be impressed by the second half performance and the lack of intensity in parts. One major positive was the performance of Sonny Bill Williams, the former league star was heavily involved in four tries and his combination of size and speed combined with wonderful hands were too good for the Tongan opponents. Richard Kahui and Israel Dagg also impressed in the backs but the pack was matched by Tonga with only the imperious Jerome Kaino standing out.
Scotland needed a Simon Danielli brace in the final five minutes to save their blushed against a Romanian side that more that matched their illustrious opponents intensity and with a touch more class could have caused the shock of the tournament. With only minutes to play Romania had a two point lead after tries from Mihai Lazar and Daniel Carpo along with a fine second half kicking performance from Ionut Dimofte but Scotland found an extra gear from somewhere to not only steal the game but grab a try bonus point.
France were given a shock by minnows Japan in Auckland and had just a mere four point lead with three quarters of the game gone but 22 points in the last 13 minutes exaggerated the score line. After an impressive start with tries from Julien Pierre and Francois Trinh-Duc and added a Vincent Clerc try before half time but a try in either half from James Arlidge (who scored all Japan’s 21 points) gave France a few nervous moments. But late tries from Lionel Nallet and replacements Pascal Pape and Morgan Para allowed France to escape with five points.
England were the next high profile team to take to the field and struggle against a physical Argentina side. The Pumas made the semi finals four years ago so this was never going to be an easy game but the performance of England; with an inability to break the line and a shocking kicking display from the usually reliable Jonny Wilkinson will be a huge concern for Martin Johnson. Replacement scrum half Ben Youngs, who would have started if not for lack of game time due to injury, scored the game’s only try, the Leicester man played with a pace and intensity that wasn’t there before his introduction and was part of a replacement group, including Dylan Hartley and Matt Stevens, that came on to spare England’s blushes. Argentina easily handled a one paced limited England attack that had very little spark and an uninspiring contest was summed up by producing just one try and few clear cut opportunities, most of which came from mistakes.
Australia were held to a scoreless opening half against Italy but were able to run in four unanswered second half tries in a sublime spell of attacking rugby. Digby Ioane’s break set up Ben Alexander to crash over and when Adam Ashley-Cooper cut open the Italian defence linking well with James Cooper minutes later the writing was on the wall. The roles were reversed as Ashley-Cooper set up Cooper with a nice inside ball and Ioane rounded off the scoring touching down after Cooper and flanker Luke Burgess combined well. Australia’s pack went well against strong Italian opposition and if they can do this against the bigger teams the backs have shown they have the ability to carve opens a defence.
Ireland continued to struggle with an error strewn performance against the USA, while the result was never in doubt the Irish problems are there for all to see. Now added to this was a poor kicking display from Jonny Sexton as the Leinster man landed just one penalty from five attempts before being replaced by Ronan O'Gara. Tommy Bowe got two of the Irish tries running a nice line of Sexton for his first and linking well with Brian O’Driscoll in a nice move by the backs. In between hooker Rory Best peeled off the back of a maul and charged over the line. Ireland will have to significantly improve if they hope to get anything out of their next game against in form Australia. 
South Africa rounded off the weekend’s action with a narrow one point win over Wales. The defending champions got off to a flyer as Francois Steyn crossed in the corner in the game’s opening minutes but the Springbok never looked comfortable with ball in hand and Wales forced their way back into proceedings. A well taken try from Toby Faletau following a powerful break from Jamie Roberts gave Wales a six point lead but replacement Francois Hougaard denied Wales a famous victory slicing through the defence to score by the posts after sustained pressure. In the most exciting game of the tournament so far the battle of the back rows was superb with Sam Warburton, Danny Lydiate and Faletau involved in a monstrous struggle with South Africa’s Pierre Spies, Heinrich Brussow and Schalk Burger. Wales will be buoyed by this performance and will look to build as the face tough challenges over the coming weeks in the shape of Samoa and Fiji. South Africa on the other hand have a few question to answer, Peter De Villiers insistence that Jon Smit is the best hooker in the world was shattered as the veteran struggled all game and only when Bismarck du Plessis entered the game did the Springbok look assured. Also an injury crisis could be in the making as Bakkies Botha has already been ruled out and Victor Matfield and Jean de Villiers both limped off the field.
In the tournaments other game Fiji ran out 49-25 winners over Namibia. Winger Vereniki Goneva scored four tries as the South Sea Islanders put in a fine attacking display. Fiji are up against it for the rest of the tournament as they have South Africa, Wales and rivals Samoa.
The remaining four teams yet to start their 2011 campaign will do so in midweek with Canada v Tonga, Georgia v Scotland and Samoa v Namibia taking place on Wednesday with Russia being the final team to enter the tournament taking on the USA on Thursday.
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