A round-up of Saturday’s international rugby matches.
Ireland 52 Canada 21
Ireland: Tries: Keith Earls (6), Luke Marshall (22), Tiernan O'Halloran (38, 78), Ultan Dillane (59), Kieran Marmion (66), James Tracy (82); penalty Try:(45); conversions: Paddy Jackson (7, 23, 39, 46, 61, 66)
Canada: Tries: DTH van der Merwe (24), Taylor Paris (29), Matt Evans (57)
• Ireland received a hero’s welcome from 51,000 Dublin fans following their historic defeat of the All Blacks and then celebrated with a hard-fought and entertaining 52-21 win over Canada at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
A week after earning their first win over world champions New Zealand in Chicago, a completely revamped Irish side had a slightly absent-minded homecoming before finally overpowering the world’s 18th0-ranked side with eight tries.
Irish coach Joe Schmidt opted to rest all the players who began the All Blacks game with a view to next weekend’s feverishly anticipated rematch and witnessed a mixture of enterprise and errors from a side that ended up giving debuts to eight players, including three in the starting XV.
The second-string side’s victory, though scrappy, gave Schmidt plenty of food for thought for the All Blacks return, especially with fine returns to the international fold after injury for key forwards Sean O’Brien and captain Peter O’Mahony.
Italy 10 New Zealand 68
Italy: Try — Tommaso Boni (67); Conversion — Tommaso Allan (68); Penalty Goal — Carlo Canna (12)
New Zealand: Tries — Malakai Fekitoa (4, 58), Charlie Faumuina (16), Patrick Tuipulotu (20), Israel Dagg (26), Wyatt Crockett (38), Steve Luatua (45), Elliot Dixon (63), Rieko Ioane (73), Waisake Naholo (77); Conversions — Aaron Cruden (5, 16, 21, 27, 38, 46, 59), Lima Sopoaga (74, 78)
• New Zealand ran riot against Italy on Saturday, running in 10 tries in a crushing 68-10 win that drew a line firmly under their shock defeat by Ireland last week.
The All Blacks’ performance was anything but smooth at times, having rested some of their best players, but they were a class above the Italians who had hoped for more under new Irish coach Conor O’Shea.
New Zealand starved Italy of possession and ran them ragged, scoring five tries in the first half and subduing a home crowd of around 70,000 who had little to cheer. Towards the end, the world champions looked to be on a training run as Italy fell further off the pace.
Italy’s only try came from an intercept with barely 10 minutes to play, Tommaso Boni running away to score. New Zealand’s tries were shared across the team, including one to debutant Rieko Ioane.
England 37 South Africa 21
England: Tries — Jonny May (11), Courtney Lawes (36), George Ford (44), Owen Farrell (67); Conversions — Owen Farrell (12, 37, 44, 67); Penalty Goals — Owen Farrell (34, 49), Elliot Daly (41)
South Africa: Tries — Johan Goosen (59), Willem Le Roux (79); Conversion — Ruan Combrinck (80); Penalty Goals — Patrick Lambie (4, 21); Drop Goal — Patrick Lambie (6)
• England ended their 10-year winless streak against South Africa in emphatic style on Saturday as they outclassed a desperately limited Springbok side for a 37-21 Twickenham victory that made it 10 wins out of 10 under coach Eddie Jones.
South Africa were in the game only for the first 20 minutes through the boot of Pat Lambie, but once England settled it was one-way traffic and tries by Jonny May and Courtney Lawes, his first on his 50th appearance, gave the hosts a 20-9 halftime lead.
England totally dominated the second half as two great dummies by scrum-half Ben Youngs set up tries for George Ford and Owen Farrell.
South Africa were ragged and though replacement Johan Goosen crossed in a rare attack and Willie le Roux scored in the last minute they never looked like adding to their run of 11 wins and a draw against England since 2006 and have now lost five of their last six matches.
Scotland 22 Australia 23
Scotland: Tries — Huw Jones (8, 27), Jonny Gray (48); Conversions — Greig Laidlaw (9, 28); Penalty Goal — Greig Laidlaw (3)
Australia: Tries — Reece Hodge (13), Tevita Kuridrani (75); Conversions — Bernard Foley (15, 77) Penalty Goals — Bernard Foley (23, 42, 56)
• Australia agonisingly snatched a last-gasp victory over Scotland for the second time in 13 months when they beat their hosts 23-22 at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Centre Tevita Kuridrani’s forceful run and one-armed stretch to touch down on the line gave the Wallabies their second try four minutes from time and Bernard Foley’s conversion sealed the win in Edinburgh.
Australia, who beat Wales 32-8 in Cardiff last weekend, made light of being a man down in the dramatic final minutes after replacement forward Will Skelton was sin-binned for dangerous play.
Two tries by exciting young centre Huw Jones in his first test start had raised the hopes of Scotland, who lost 35-34 to the Australians in last year’s World Cup quarter-final.
France 52 Samoa 8
France: Tries – Virimi Vakatawa (13, 64, 78), Yoann Huget (29), Charles Ollivon (33), Gael Fickou (56); Penalty Try (76); Conversions – Maxime Machenaud (34, 57), Baptiste Serin (77, 80); Penalty Goals – Maxime Machenaud (10, 25, 38)
Samoa: Try – Rey Lee-Lo (42); Penalty Goal – Patrick Fa'apale (8)
• France performed a demolition job on Samoa, scoring seven tries, but they lost fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc to an injury that is set to keep him out for the rest of the November series.
Wing Virimi Vakatawa bagged three tries and Charles Ollivon, Yoann Huget, Gael Fickou and a penalty try added to their tally. Scrum-half Maxime Machenaud’s boot provided 13 points and Jean-Baptiste Serin slotted two conversions.
Samoa’s points came from Patrick Fa’apale’s early penalty and a second-half touchdown by Rey Lee-Lo at the Stadium Principal.
After an early trade of penalties Vakatawa went over in the left corner following a neat move.
Machenaud failed to convert but added a second penalty to give France an eight-point lead after 25 minutes.
Wesley Fofana grabbed the ball in a ruck and set up Huget for the second try as the wing ran on unchallenged before Machenaud again missed the conversion.
The third try started 90 metres out when France played a lineout quickly and Fofana foraged through the Samoa defence before offloading to Lamerat.
He found Vakatawa on the left before the ball was swung to the right for Ollivon to score. Machenaud converted and then added a penalty just before the break.
Samoa replied when centre Lee-Lo went past Uini Atonio and dived over.
France then received two blows as Lamerat was replaced by Fickou because of a shoulder injury and Jean-Marc Doussain came on for Trinh-Duc.
Fickou made an almost immediate impact with a try after being perfectly set up by Kevin Gourdon.
Another fine offload by Fofana, who produced a world-class display, started another excellent move by France that ended with Vakatawa’s second try in the left corner.
France then added a penalty try before Vakatawa powered through the defence to notch his third.
Wales 24 Argentina 20
Wales: Tries – Liam Williams (43), Gareth Davies (55); Conversion – Leigh Halfpenny (56); Penalty Goals – Leigh Halfpenny (15, 24, 66, 79)
Argentina: Tries – Juan Martin Hernandez (48), Martin Landajo (61); Conversions – Nicolas Sanchez (49, 62); Penalty Goals – Nicolas Sanchez (4, 75)
• Wales recovered from last weekend’s loss to Australia with a 24-20 victory over Argentina in an bruising test match at Cardiff’s Principality stadium on Saturday.
Tries by wing Liam Williams and scrumhalf Gareth Davies were cancelled out by touchdowns for the Pumas centre Juan Martin Hernandez and scrumhalf Martin Landajo, with 14 points from the boot of Leigh Halfpenny giving the home side the advantage.
Wales should have led by more than 6-3 at halftime after camping on the edge of the Argentina line for the last quarter of an hour. But despite a succession of penalties, including one which earned prop Ramiro Herrera a yellow card, Wales failed to turn 63 percent possession into points.
The Welsh, who lost 32-8 to Australia last Saturday, next host Japan, beaten 54-20 by Argentina last weekend, while Argentina visit Scotland.
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