Full Time in Bordeaux where it has finished 17-12 to Fiji in dramatic fashion after late drama. Fiji were far from their best this evening but get the job done. Georgia secure an important losing bonus point, but could have won this game right at the death.

The opening ten minutes belonged to Georgia, who already looked much better than they did during their 18-18 draw against Portugal last week. In the opening ten minutes, Fiji were forced to make over 35 tackles, compared with Georgia’s 2.

However, their inability to be clinical on entries into the Fijian 22’ would hold them back as they squandered multiple good chances. In certain cases, an offload was viable, but the Georgian’s were unable to execute the passes. Georgia would get on the scoreboard first, Luka Matkava converting an early penalty, making amends for his missed conversion against Portugal last time out.

Georgia were rocked by two early injuries. Firstly, Tengiz Zamtaradze was removed from the pitch with what looked like a collar-bone injury. Then, just five minutes later, Lasha Jaiani was left rolling around the floor in pain as he suffered a nasty looking leg injury. He would be withdrawn on a stretcher.

Despite the early injuries, Georgia remained calm and composed, and showed great spirit to neutralise the Fijian attack. A monstrous penalty kick from Davit Niniashvili from 55m metres was struck cleanly between the posts to extend Georgia’s lead to six points in the 18th minute.

Fiji would enjoy a good spell of possession, but they failed to convert their momentum into a tangible score. Camped in the Georgian 22’, they lacked any structure in their attack in the opening 25 minutes. With the option of an easy kick at goal after winning a penalty, the Fijians instead opted to tag-and-go, only to then knock it on three phases later. Georgia would make Fiji pay for this mistake minutes later as Niniashvili was on hand to kick another excellent penalty through the posts from the halfway line.

Georgia lead this game 9-0 at half time and they have been brilliant and smart. Fiji on the other hand looked a different side to the one that dismantled Australia two weeks ago. They made uncharacteristic handling errors and their lineout was a mess. They looked tired and rattled early in this game; Georgia smelt blood and they were going for it.

Georgia almost score a try on the brink of time, in fact Akaki Tabutsadze had touched the ball over the line, but referee Karl Dickson deemed the pass from Mikheil Gachechiladze to have drifted forwards. Dickson opted not to go to the TMO, but the replays looked as if the pass was flat.

Georgia took great confidence from the opening 40 minutes and would look to build in the second half. Matters were made worse for Fiji as Semi Radradra was shown a yellow card in the 41st minute for a deliberate knock-on to kill a dangerous Georgian counter attack. Georgia would look to capitalise on their man-advantage but made a string of unfortunate and costly errors in the Fijian 22’, allowing Fiji to clear the danger.

Fiji would come back up the field and would get themselves on the scoreboard thanks to a brilliant finish in the corner from captain Waisea Nayacalevu. After stealing a Georgian lineout, Fiji played a series of phases before spreading the ball wide to Josua Tuisova. The centre found his partner Nayacalevu in the corner, who did brilliantly to stay infield before dotting the ball down for a try.

An excellent conversion from Frank Lomani would reduce Georgia’s lead to just two points, with Radradra’s time in the sin-bin coming to a close. Ironically, Lomani’s following penalty effort in front of the posts was missed.

After a prolonged period of Fijian pressure, they would turn their control into points at Frank Lomani converted a penalty from 40 metres to give Fiji the lead for the first time in this game in the 64th minute. Lomani didn’t connect with the ball brilliantly, but he did just enough to see the effort through the posts. Fiji held a narrow one-point lead with fifteen minutes still to play.

Fiji rolled back the clock and produced a moment of magic in the 67th minute as they scored a wonderfully created try to stretch their lead over Georgia to 8 points. Capitalising on a bouncing ball, Levani Botia found himself with the ball on the right wing just inside the Georgian 22’.

The flanker bulldozed through three defenders, before being smothered, however he then produced a wonderful offload to an oncoming Vinaya Habosi who would gather the ball well and cross the try line for a brilliant score.

Georgia showed signs of real promise, but they lacked a clinical edge yet again in this game. They entered the Fijian 22’ ten times, and had nothing to show from it, their only points coming from kicks from distance.

A late penalty from Matkava would bring Georgia within 5 points, thus awarding them a losing bonus point, but they could have won the game right at the death. With Fiji a man down thanks to a yellow card to Josua Tuisova, Georgia had an overlap out wide inside their own half. With the clock in the red they had to run with it, Gela Aprasidze eventually producing a wonderful chip kick for Matkava to chase. Fiji’s Ilaisa Droasese would recover well and kick the ball out of play to bring this game to a dramatic end.

Full Time in Bordeaux and it’s Fiji who get a crucial win over Georgia, despite looking far from their best. We await to see if Tuisova’s yellow card gets upgraded to a red, but for now it’s job done for Fiji.

South Africa secured a convincing 76-0 win over Romania in Pool B this afternoon at Stade de Bordeaux.

Head coach Jacques Nienaber named a team showing 14 changes to face Romania but, despite the changes, the Springboks overpowered Romania in every aspect of the game.

Scrum-half Cobus Reinach scored a first half hat-trick and was joined on the scoresheet by Makazole Mapimpi, and Damian Willemse, who also scored before the break.

The misery continued for Romania in the second half with two further tries from Mapimpi, two tries from Grant Williams, a penalty try and Deon Fourie and Willie Le Roux also touched down to add to the impressive scoreline.

With just two and a half minutes gone, the reigning champions were already on the board after the scrum-half Cobus Reinach went right off the base of the scrum, feinted to pass but then glided over the line for a simple try.

It was just minutes later when the Springboks struck again, with Damian Willemse missing out several green shirts with a long pass to the left to Willie le Roux, who then selflessly flipped it back inside to Makazole Mapimpi just inside the corner flag.

Willemse then landed a difficult conversion from a tight angle.

Romania’s error strewn defence once again allowed Cobus Reinach to slip through the tackles to go in under the posts for his second in under 10 minutes and Willemse showed his class when he stepped off his right to slide through and score underneath the posts to give his side the bonus point within 12 minutes.

The first half rout continued when the South African scrum shunted the Romanian pack backwards and Reinach collected the ball to dot down for his hat-trick try, which Damian Willemse converted.

Five tries for South Africa in the first half, three of them for Cobus Reinach and a completely one-sided affair as the teams went in at the break.

The Springboks were relentless in the second-half, with Deon Fourie, usually a back row but pressed into action as an emergency hooker with Malcolm Marx out injured for the rest of the tournament, rolling over the line following a pinpoint throw and effective maul.

To rub salt in the wounds, minutes later the Romania scrum could not cope with the Springboks' scrum and the referee awarded a penalty try to give the world champions another seven points.

Wave after wave of attack continued as Grant Williams sliced through a non-existent defence and touch down under the posts to bring South Africa’s lead to 50 points followed within a few minutes by another try from Mapimpi who was slipped in for an easy run to the corner.

The Springboks never took their foot off the pedal and Grant Williams blasted over from close range and minutes later substitute scrum-half Faf de Klerk and Willie le Roux started an attack from inside their own 22, with Makazole Mapimpi then racing clear from deep inside his own half to touch down near the corner flag.

Mapimpi got his hat-trick in the last 10 minutes after yet another slick backs move and De Klerk knocked over the conversion from the left.

To cap off an impressive performance, South Africa spun it right and Willie le Roux, despite have Makazole Mapimpi outside him, elects to have a go at the line himself and crossed for his first Rugby World Cup try.

The game turned into a training exercise of a match for South Africa, but they will now have their sights set on Ireland.

Four tries in twelve minutes either side of the interval saw Samoa overcome the challenge of Chile to commence their Rugby World Cup campaign with a BP win in Bordeaux.

Commencing their tournament, Samoa started with a spring in their step, early attacking pressure yielding the game’s first points as former Aussie, the Wallabies top points scorer in Japan four years ago, Christian Leali’ifano slotted a straightforward penalty for 3-0.

Chile came roaring back however, as another blistering break by flying full-back, Inaki Ayarza, released Rodrigo Fernandez, romping into the twenty-two.  Knocking hard on the door, they shortly burst through via prop Matias Dittus dotting down.

Better was to come as Samoan centre, Ulupano Seuteni, was sent to the sin bin for an off-the-ball tackle, Santiago Videla rubbed salt in the wounds with a fine conversion.

Swiftly, Leali’ifano reduced the deficit to one as a high-scoring first ten minutes flew by in Bordeaux.

Early ill-discipline was seriously hindering Chile’s enterprise, Leali’ifano edging Samoa 9-7 in front with his third successful penalty.

Thirty minutes in and the pendulum swung again, this time the Chileans a point ahead after Matias Garafulic, on kicking duties with Videla off injured, firing through the posts.

Four minutes out from the interval, Leali’ifano lodged his fourth kick of the day to restore Samoa’s slender, two-point advantage.

It got even better for them before the break, a dominant scrum popping up to a lovely Leali’ifano grubber kick through, gathered by winger Danny Toala, who found full-back, Duncan Paia’aua, gliding into score in the corner.

A lethal Leali’ifano conversion left it 19-10 at half time, Chile a score behind despite again impressing.

Picking up where they left off, Samoa firmly put their foot to the floor and extended their lead inside two second half minutes when, despite being tackled, Theo McFarland audaciously popped a perfect pass up for scrumhalf, Jonathan Taumateine to acrobatically collect and dive over.

The conversion went wide but fourteen points up now, there were Samoan smiles aplenty.

Taking complete control, a third try soon followed, as a monster maul rumbled towards the line, flanker Fritz Lee the man credited with touching the ball down to put Samoa 29-10 up, heading into the last half hour.

Moments later, the bonus point try arrived, a carbon copy of Lee’s as replacement hooker, Sama Malolo was the man to finish off another rumbling maul, Chile unable to stem the tide and suffering further when Leali’ifano added an easy two points.

More woe was inflicted on Chile midway through the second half, replacement flanker, Alfonso Escobar shown yellow for a shoulder tackle.

Immediately though, it was fourteen against fourteen as Samoa’s scrumhalf replacement, Ereatara Enari went to the sideline for a technical foul, both going to the bunker review to see if either would be upgraded to a red card offence.

Both, to the players’ relief, remained at yellow cards.

With nine minutes, a scrappy spell became scrappier with replacement prop, Esteban Inostroza on and then promptly sent to the side as he saw yellow, suffering for Chile’s frequent ill-discipline.

Malola was denied a late brace by a knock-on, neatly encapsulating the lack of cohesion on both sides of the closing stages.

With the last play though, the replacement hooker did double his try tally, spinning across from close range and Leali’ifano making it a final score of 43-10.

Really, the match’s outcome swung emphatically to Samoa once Paia’aua powered over, three swift tries following after the break as they ultimately picked up maximum points with relative ease under blistering Bordeaux conditions.

Samoa are back in action soon enough, facing Argentina on Friday afternoon in St Etienne, Chile are in Lile the next day to face England, looking to turn bruises against the teams ranked above them into long-lasting scars.

Late drama and heartbreak for Fiji as a late knock-on from Semi Radradra allowed Wales to squeeze through this Group C opener, winning 32-26 tonight in Bordeaux.

It was an action-packed game from start to finish, with some great rugby played by both sides, but ultimately Wales pick up a bonus-point victory over Fiji. Fiji do, however, pick up two points in bonuses for tries scored and for being within 7 points of Wales at the full time whistle.

It was an utterly pulsating first half, both sides looking to lay down a marker in the opening game of their tournament. An early Dan Biggar penalty saw Wales get on the scoresheet first, just five minutes later they would add to their score with a Josh Adams try.

Following a Welsh lineout, the ball was spread through the midfield, where inside-centre Nick Tompkins bravely took the ball towards the formidable Fijian defence, releasing a lovely pop-pass inside to George North just before he was tackled. North strode up the pitch, deep into Fijian territory, and after a series of pick-and-go drives, the ball worked its way wide to Josh Adams, who crossed the try line to give Wales an 8-point lead.

It was all Fiji for the next ten minutes, as they bounced back quickly after conceding early. Fiji were at their best during times of broken play, characterised by their first try this evening, scored by Waisea Nayacalevu.

Fiji were building well inside the Welsh half, but a loose pass looked as if it had halted them in their tracks. However, Nayacalevu sped onto the bouncing ball, judging the bounce perfectly before powering through a gap between Dan Biggar and Aaron Wainwright. The centre’s speed carried him through the contact, and there could be no stopping him on his way to the line.

The flyinf Fijians were on the scoresheet again just moments later, Nayacalevu heavily involved again. Following a solid scrum, Fiji played the ball through the hands of the backs. The outside centre went on a darting run before he released his centre-partner Semi Radradra with a beautifully delicate offload.

Radradra anticipated the offload and powered through the broken Welsh defence, driving towards the line with Lekima Tagitagivalu to his right. Drawing the tackle, Radradra released the ball to his teammate, who went over for an easy score.

Wales didn’t panic, however, and wrestled back some momentum in this game with another Dan Biggar Penalty from distance. Getting a real foothold in this game, Wales would go on to take the lead in the 28^th minute thanks to a brilliant running line and offload from Tompkins yet again. Despite being pushed back repeatedly by a strong Fijian maul defense, Wales chipped away with the forwards, before releasing the ball out the back.

Much like his move to set up the earlier try, Tompkins took the ball hard to the line, committing the defenders before offloading inside to North again. This time North was too close to the line to be stopped, and he flew over the whitewash to make it four tries scored in the first half hour. Fiji will be annoyed at this score, for it looked as if Wales had scuppered an opportunity just moments previously. However, a TMO check awarded Wales a penalty for a no arms tackle from Vinaya Habosi. It was from the resulting lineout that Wales scored.

The TMO was called into action again in the 34^th minute after it looked as if Eroni Mawi had dived over the top of the ruck to dot down a third try for Fiji. After review, the loose-head prop was deemed to have knocked the ball on, and thus no try was awarded.

It was a brilliant first half of rugby from both sides, but you suspect Fiji headed into the break the happier of the two sides. They consistently made metres in their carries and looked much the more dangerous side.

Wales were strong out of the blocks at the start of the second half, and could have extended their lead by 3, but Dan Biggar missed a penalty to the right of the posts. They would, however, make up for this miss with a try in the 48^th minute, scored by the electric Louis Rees-Zammit. Nick Tompkins was busy again, this time proving himself as a hot-stepper to break the Fiji defence and drive towards the line.

From the following ruck, flanker and captain Jac Morgan produced a wonderful cross-field kick to Rees-Zammit on the right wing. Vinaya Habosi will not want to look at a replay of this try again, for he could have caught the awkward kick, but was off balance after scarpering with ground to make up. Rees-Zammit had an easy run to the line, and another Biggar conversion brought Wales’ lead up to 11 points.

Fiji refused to go down without a fight, and pushed for a comeback try for the next ten minutes. The Fijians, with immense pressure on the Welsh try line, opted to keep the ball with the forwards and rattled through an enormous number of pick-and-go drives. Wales were lucky not to have a player sent to the bin, after they committed four penalty offences in the space of three minutes with Fiji in dangerous positions. The offside offences were rather cynical, with the choice not to go to the book an interesting one from Karl Dickson the referee.

This feeling only got worse for Fiji fans when they had Lekima Tagitagivalu sent to the bin for a first-time offense for dragging down a Welsh driving maul. From the resulting penalty, Wales opted for the lineout, backing their driving maul. They got the call right, as substitute hooker Elliot Dee crossed over the try line to give Wales a bonus-point-securing try. Another conversion from Dan Biggar was to be the veteran fly-half’s last involvement in this game, who had a great night from the kicking tee, scoring 12 points.

Wales’ man advantage would last just moments, as Welsh prop substitute Corey Domachowski was shown a yellow card for kicking the ball away after Fiji were awarded a penalty. It was a moment of madness from the prop, who won’t have got any thanks from his teammates, who now found themselves under more pressure than they had anticipated.

Fiji didn’t waste much time in piling the pressure back on Wales, as they finally got the pick-and-go try that they deserved. With Wales camped on their try line for much of this third quarter, Fiji made their territory count. The ball was played out to superstar Josua Tuisova, who powered through a gap in the Welsh defence to score a crucial try for Fiji. It was all set to be a dramatic closing ten minutes.

Levani Botia was denied a try by TMO after he was deemed to have illegaly made a double movement to reach for the try line. TMO officials were happy to stick with an on-field decision of Try, but the referee was unhappy with Botia’s movement and ruled out the try. The Fijian contingent of Bordeaux were very unhappy with this decision.

Fiji got their reward for all of their hard work, and substitute Mesake Doge crossed the try line to reduce Wales’ lead to just 6 points with only minutes left in this game.

With the clock deep in the red, it looked as if Fiji were going to score a late try to potentially win the game, as Teti Tela spread the ball wide to Semi Radradra who found himself with time and space on the left wing. The pass bounced on the ground just at the feet of Radradra, who spilled the ball forward and was unable to collect the ball. With that, the game was over and Wales would hold on for the win. Heartbreak for Fiji at the death, the shock written all over the face of Radradra, who you would fancy to score a try from there 9 times out of 10.

Late drama in an action-packed night in Bordeaux, the game of the tournament so far, without a doubt.

Ireland secured a comfortable 82-8 win this afternoon over Romania in their opening game of the Rugby World Cup in the Stade de Bordeaux this afternoon.

Andy Farrell’s side named a strong team for their opening clash with Romania, who rank 19th in the world rugby rankings.

The win was expected but, perhaps more importantly, the return of talismanic captain Jonny Sexton went well despite an injury concern following his first of two tries. Lasting 65 minutes, Farrell will be relieved to see his captain get some vital game time under his belt after her missed Ireland’s three warm up matches through suspension.

Romania got off to surprise lead, scoring through scrum-half Rupanu but Gibson-Park, Keenan, Beirne, Aki, Sexton hit back for Ireland giving them a comfortable lead going into the break.

Sexton scored again in the second-half, O’Mahoney touched down twice and Herring, Aki, McCarthy and Beirne added scores to rub salt in the wound further.

In blistering 35-degree heat, Romania got off to a good start, taking a shocking early lead with an opportunistic try from scrum-half Rupanu.

Jamison Gibson-Park responded with a try within 2 minutes, with Johnny Sexton showing good composure to start the move which ended with Garry Ringrose slipping in his scrum-half for an easy finish.

Ireland never looked back, and the floodgates opened for the rest of the game. Despite a few uncharacteristic mistakes in the first quarter, particularly in the lineout, Ireland grew into the game and started to click after the first quarter which was scrappy at times.

Ireland demonstrated their quality with Bundee Aki injecting pace before linking with Peter O'Mahony and he popped it inside to Keenan who got past his opposite number to ground the ball.

Multi-phase and multi-faceted rugby from Ireland made life difficult for Romania who performed admirably despite the noticeable difference in quality between the two sides.

The industrious Tadgh Berine collected a long pass wide by James Lowe to reach across the line for the next try.

Wave after wave of attack continued, and Bundee Aki – who was instrumental in almost everything Ireland did – crashed over for Ireland’s fourth and captain Sexton went over for Ireland’s fifth just before the break, almost injuring himself in the process.

After the break, Ireland’s upward trajectory continued with a try on 45 minutes from Herring who powered his way over with a tap and go penalty.

Some slick play and some slick passing continued with O’Mahoney and Sexton the beneficiaries, dotting down for their side in the third quarter.
Ireland continued to dominate in the final quarter and Romania struggled to keep up,
letting in O’Mahoney once again and Herring, Aki, McCarthy threatened to make this
a record win for Ireland.
With Romania visibly wilting, Ireland took their chances by running the ball from their
own line and working up the field playing exhibition rugby in the dying moments of
the game.
Tadhg Beirne made the break for a late try to add even more onto an already healthy
scoreline and put Romania out of their misery.
An emphatic win and, although not a perfect performance, it would be hard to
complain about the thumping win in Bordeaux.