Monday, Nov. 24, 2008

LONDON (AP) South Africa inflicted England's worst ever defeat at Twickenham, New Zealand knocked off Wales to close in on another Grand Slam, and Australia beat France for another Tri-Nations sweep over Six Nations teams on Saturday.

In other rugby internationals, Ireland beat Argentina 17-3 in a bad-tempered game, Scotland crushed Canada 41-0, the Pacific Islanders beat Italy 25-17 for their first win since they being formed four years ago, and Japan beat the United States 32-17 to complete a two-test sweep.

After unimpressive wins over Wales and Scotland, the Springboks rebounded to crush England 42-6. They punished England's errors in the same way Australia did at Twickenham last week, and the error-ridden performance piled pressure on manager Martin Johnson, who has lost two of his first three matches in charge.

Danie Rossouw, Ruan Pienaar, Adrian Jacobs, Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana all scored tries as the Springboks, who beat the English 15-6 in the World Cup final in France a year ago, registered their biggest score at Twickenham and the home side mustered only two penalties by flyhalf Danny Cipriani.

"When we walked out of the changing room, you get a feeling that something big is about to happen," South Africa captain John Smit said. "We didn't get a good start but no one flinched. When we had the ball we made huge yards. When we didn't have the ball we made huge yards."

The margin of defeat surpassed the previous Twickenham worst, a 41-20 defeat to New Zealand in 2006.

"They've given us a lesson today, the main one scoring tries and turning pressure into points," Johnson said. "I've probably beaten the Springboks three times and not created as many chances to score tries that we did today."

Three penalties by Wales flyhalf Stephen Jones threatened an upset at Millennium Stadium where Wales led the All Blacks 9-6 at halftime. But in a second-half turnaround in which New Zealand applied all the pressure, Dan Carter kicked the All Blacks ahead and converted both tries to Ma'a Nonu and Jerome Kaino to win 29-9 for their 20th straight victory in 55 years against Wales.

"It took us a long time to get some ascendancy in the game but we realized it's an 80-minute job," said New Zealand captain Richie McCaw.

The All Blacks, yet to concede a try after earlier wins over Scotland and Ireland, can complete their third-ever Grand Slam of the Home Unions against a slumping England next Saturday.

"That's going to be our plan now. We came over here to play four good tests and we're three-quarters of the way through," McCaw said. "We'll look forward to a tough one at Twickenham."

Hooker Stephen Moore and winger Peter Hynes scored tries in Australia 18-13 win at Stade de France as the Wallabies followed up their victories over Italy and England with another triumph on the road, their first against France in France since 2000.

France kicker David Skrela missed five penalties and the home team squandered a 13-10 lead.

Ireland needed a victory in Dublin to guarantee a place among the seeded teams in the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand, and the game against Argentina could have gone either way until a late surge.

There was an early blow for the Pumas when imaginative flyhalf Juan Martin Hernandez limped off with a groin strain during the warmup and had to be replaced in the starting lineup by Santiago Fernandez.

The replacement kicked the first points in the 37th minute but Ronan O'Gara leveled a minute later to send the two teams into halftime at 3-3.

The Ireland flyhalf contributed three penalties and a drop goal and provided the crossfield kick that sent winger Tommy Bowe over for the only try late in the game. Ill-disciplined near the end, Pumas prop Rodrigo Roncero was sinbinned for the second straight test.

In their last game before next season's Six Nations, Scotland ran in six tries against the Canadians at Aberdeen's Pittodrie Stadium with winger Nikki Walker scoring two in his home town. Ben Cairns, John Barclay, Al Strokosch and Rory Lamont also crossed the Canadian line.

Fijian winger Vilimoni Delasau scored two of his team's three tries against Italy, in the Pacific Islanders' first win in nine tests.

And in Tokyo, Japan won consecutive tests against the United States for the first time since 1999 with a four-tries-to-three victory at Prince Chichibu Memorial Ground.

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