Week three of Rugby World Cup 2023 delivered some of the best matches of the tournament.
It was headlined by a battle of the top two teams in the world as Ireland held off South Africa at Stade de France.
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Henry Arundell lit up the field with an incredible five tries, whilst Georgia and Portugal played out an entertaining draw.
Rugby.com.au recaps every game from the weekend.
Italy have recovered from a first-half scare to overwhelm Uruguay 38-17 in their World Cup Pool A game.
The Azzurri scored 31 unanswered second-half points to claim a second consecutive bonus-point win.
Uruguay led 17-7 at the break on Wednesday and were dreaming of a huge upset after a remarkable first half.
That began well for Italy with a try by Lorenzo Pani - given after the TMO decided he just scraped the ball on the grass under pressure from a double challenge, but then went badly wrong.
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Quotes
"In the first half we turned over seven balls inside our own 40, our discipline wasn’t good enough and we went down to 13 for a while. Credit to Uruguay, they put us under pressure, they took points when they could and got the drop-goal at the end.” - Italy coach Kieran Crowley.
“We cannot think this is best result for us. We are quiet now. We did our best for this game. Italy and Namibia were quite difficult matches and that’s what we’ve been preparing for. We were not able to fight the Italians off, but the team has shown great enthusiasm and momentum and we will keep working on that.” Uruguay coach Esteben Meneses
Scores
Italy 38 (TRIES: Pani, Lamaro, Ioane, Cannone, Brex; CONS: Allan 5; PENS: Garbisi) def Uruguay 17 (TRIES: Feitas, Penalty Try; CONS: Etcheverry; DROP GOALS: Etcheverry)
Damian Penaud scored a hat-trick of tries as France thrashed Namibia 96-0 in a World Cup Pool A match in Marseille on Thursday, but star scrum-half Antoine Dupont went off injured after a high tackle.
Dupont, who had scored a try and produced two decisive cross-kicks, left the pitch in the 46th minute nursing his right cheekbone after Johan Deysel got his contact completely off-kilter in a nasty head-on-head clash and was sent off.
After the host nation had seen off New Zealand 27-13 in the tournament's opening match, a second-string side had struggled to a 27-12 victory over Uruguay. Neither win proferred up a bonus point.
Coach Fabien Galthie left no room for doubt for their third pool match in selecting a full-strength team that outclassed the Namibians in every facet of the game which produced a French record 14-try mauling.
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Quotes
"There are minor knocks. Uini Atonio's knee is nothing serious and Paul Boudehent underwent a concussion protocol that was positive…The aim was to give everyone some game-time and not sit back for a month. The players wanted and needed to play.” - France coach Fabien Galthie
“I must say it’s definitely hurting, a bit of humiliation from our side. I can see the players are really hurting tonight. I don’t know if the occasion was too big; [we were] completely out of system, out of structure. Every little poor kick or mistake got punished, and this is what you can expect from a quality side like the French. You make a mistake, you’re behind the poles” - Namibia coach Allister Coetzee
Scores
France 96 (TRIES: Penaud 3, Danty 2, Ollivon 2, Flament, Dupont, Bielle-Biarrey, Couilloud, Jaminet, Penalty Try; CONS: Ramos 12) def Namibia 0
Fullback Emiliano Boffelli has scored 16 points in a man-of-the-match performance as Argentina got their World Cup campaign back on track with a hard-fought 19-10 victory over a committed Samoa.
Roared on by passionate Argentine support, Boffelli scored an early try and converted four of five kicks from the tee to get the Pumas back to winning ways on Friday (Saturday AEST) after the disappointment of their 27-10 loss to 14-man England in their Pool D opener.
Samoa managed just one penalty kick from former Wallabies five-eighth Christian Leali'ifano until replacement hooker Sama Malolo barged his way over the line for his third try of the tournament five minutes from time.
That set up a frenetic finale but Nicolas Sanchez, coming off the bench to win his 99th cap for Argentina, lashed over a final penalty from just inside the Samoa half to make the game safe and deny Samoa a losing bonus point.
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Quotes
"Happy. When I said I wasn't convinced, this is a World Cup and everyone is here to play their best game.There were moments when we wanted to score (points) and make the score grow. Our defensive foundations were there, the maul was much better than the previous game. It's something we want to build on for the next game. Be better in those situations.” - Argentina coach Michael Cheika
“I actually haven’t had a chance to look at the stats, but it’s pretty tough to win a test match - especially against a team of the calibre of Argentina - with 40 per cent possession. In saying that, we created a few opportunities which was pleasing to see. If we finish off a couple of those it becomes a very different game.” Samoa coach Seilala Mapusua
Scores
Argentina 19 (TRIES: Boffelli; CONS: Boffelli; PENS: Boffelli 3, Sanchez) def Samoa 10 (TRIES: Malolo; CONS: Leuila; PENS: Leali’ifano)
Raffaele Storti scored two tries to help Portugal to a 18-18 draw with Georgia on Saturday, but Nuno Sousa Guedes missed an injury-time penalty that would have handed them a first ever World Cup victory.
The Georgians were unbeaten in their previous 18 Test matches against Portugal coming into the Pool C match at Toulouse, winning their most recent by a margin of 27 points in March.
But Portugal, backed by a baying partisan crowd, were doughty in defence and expansive in attack, Storti grabbing his two opportunities with aplomb.
There was drama to the end when replacement Georgia hooker Tengizi Zamtaradze was driven over to bring the scores level, but Luka Matkava pushed his touchline conversion wide.
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Quotes
"In the first half we had a lot of opportunities to score more tries. We dominated everywhere but we didn’t execute. In the second half we lost everything. Portugal played very well. We almost lost this game.” - Georgia coach Levan Maisashvili
"When we think about our first half it was a miracle, second half we could have won. We are a young team and there’s so much to learn. We are growing every game and we need experience. I want to forgive the bad choices because they defended really well in the second half.” - Portugal coach Patrice Lagisquet
Scores
Georgia 18 (TRIES: Tabutsadze, Zamtaradze; CONS: Abzhandadze; PENS: Abzhandadze 2) drew with Portugal 18 (TRIES: Storti 2; CONS: Marques; PENS: Marques 2)
Henry Arundell has plundered five tries as England overcame a frantic start to dismantle World Cup newcomers Chile with a 71-0 victory that put some attacking spring into their march towards the quarter-finals.
Steve Borthwick's team were rewarded for discarding their unpopular kicking game on Saturday (Sunday AEST) in favour of all-out attack and, although the strategy resulted in some frenzied early play, they amassed 11 tries once they'd settled.
Arundell marked his World Cup debut by equalling the England record of five tries scored in a single Test as he ran riot in perfect conditions at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille.
Two-try Marcus Smith shared star billing after providing an extra dimension with the ball in hand from fullback - albeit against a side positioned 22 in the global rankings.
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Quotes
"You have to give immense credit to Chile. They played in a manner that was courageous, incredibly committed and made it very difficult for us. Clearly I'm pleased with the way the team worked through a patch that was a bit sticky. But ultimately, we played some very good rugby.” - England coach Steve Borthwick
"England are at a different level. They are competing to win the title. They are very focused and they have a clear aim. For us, we were able to win a few metres but we lost the ball too quickly and lost control of the game. We found it hard to build. Sometimes we made the wrong decisions. We didn't follow our game plan but this was more down to England's quality than our mistakes.” - Chile coach Pablo Lemoine
Scores
England 71 (TRIES: Arundell 5, Dan 2, Rodd, Smith 2, Willis; CONS: Farrell 8) def Chile 0
Top-ranked Ireland have claimed a 13-8 statement victory over defending champions South Africa in a high-octane heavyweight World Cup clash that lived up to the hype at a sweltering Stade de France.
Andy Farrell's side prevailed with a Mack Hansen try, five points from the boot of captain Johnny Sexton and another three from the tee by Jack Crowley to stay top of Pool B on 14 points, four ahead of second-placed South Africa, with their 16th consecutive test win.
Cheslin Kolbe scored a try for the Springboks but Manie Libbok only had a penalty to show for his efforts, missing a conversion and another three pointer as Faf de Klerk also missed a couple of long-range penalties, leaving his team beaten at the World Cup for the first time in nine matches.
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Quotes
"Resilience, which has been really good of late anyway. That was a proper game that had everything, and how we managed to stay on point mentally was fantastic. In the first half we had the rub of the green and didn’t capitalise on that. We kept our heads, getting those penalties at the end when it really mattered.” - Ireland coach Andy Farrell
"Hats off to Ireland, they were better than us on the day. We missed a couple of points off the tee. I won’t say that’s the sole reason for not getting across the line. In the first half alone we lost two balls close to the try line and had another two opportunities later on, so that’s four opportunities, plus those points off tee. But I won’t say it is only goal-kicking.” - South Africa coach Jacques Nienaber
Scores
Ireland 13 (TRIES: Hansen; CONS: Sexton; PENS Sexton, Crowley) def South Africa 8 (TRIES: Kolbe; PENS: Libbok)
A well-rested Scotland have burst back after a two-week break to run in seven tries against Tonga and win 45-17 with a bonus point to revive their hopes of making the knockout stages at the Rugby World Cup.
Scotland playmaker Finn Russell was near his masterly best as Tonga were finally overrun, but only after the Pacific islanders led 10-7 in the first half and closed it to 24-17 early in the second with a bulldozing charge by 151kg captain Ben Tameifuna, the heaviest man at the World Cup.
Scotland wing Duhan van der Merwe bounced back from a couple of juddering hits on him by Tonga to throw his own considerable weight around in Sunday's (Monday AEST) enjoyable clash.
He scored the second of Scotland's four first-half tries untouched on the left wing, then powered past and through three defenders to set up replacement George Horne in the corner for the try that ended Tonga's resistance and put the Scots 31-17 up with 25 minutes to go.
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Quotes
"You've got to be happy with the win but we know we could have been a lot better in the last quarter of the game. It just got a bit loose, we pride ourselves on making sure we stay at the levels we started at and we didn't do that today, but I'm really proud of the effort that went in." - Scotland coach Gregor Townsend
"The biggest difference is we took some opportunities to score some tries. There were a couple of opportunities we missed as well. We just weren't able to put sustained pressure on them. The effort was good, but we missed a few one-on-one tackles." - Tonga coach Toutai Kefu
Scores
Scotland 45 (TRIES: Turner, van der Merwe, Steyn, Darge, Horne, Kinghorn, Graham; CONS: Russell 5) def Tonga 17 (TRIES: Kata, Tameifuna; CONS: Havili 2; PENS: Havili)
The Wallabies’ World Cup dream is all but over after a 40-6 defeat to Wales in Lyon.
It’s the team’s largest defeat at a World Cup and leaves them needing Fiji to lose both their games for any chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals.
Replacement Gareth Anscombe was the chief destroyer as Wales controlled the game despite a shoulder injury to Dan Biggar.
After missing his first shot at goal, the flyhalf was perfect from the boot, contributing 23 points as the Welsh ran away with the game.
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Quotes
"We have put a lot of work in the last four months as a team together, we are a momentum team, we build on confidence in terms of performances. Today was an outstanding performance in terms of what we wanted to achieve, game-management. We were blowing a bit at half-time but I thought we went out and controlled the second half fantastically well." - Wales coach Warren Gatland
"Our performance was not up to the standard that was required. I apologise for that. I take full responsibility for it. We are disappointed, we have a young team in there very disappointed. They tried their hearts out but unfortunately at the moment we don't have consistency in our play to put pressure on teams like Wales. We do some good things and then fall away. It's very disappointing." - Australia coach Eddie Jones
Scores
Wales 40 (TRIES: Davies, Tompkins, Morgan; CONS: Biggar, Anscombe; PENS: Anscombe 6; DG: Anscombe) def Australia 6 (PENS: Donaldson 2)
