Australia defeated Uruguay 45-10 in a Pool D match at Oita Stadium, Oita Prefecture on Sunday, 5 October. Australia held a 19-3 at the break.
In the first two rounds, Australia beat Fiji 39-21and then lost to Wales 29-25. Uruguay beat Fiji 30-27and then lost to Georgia 33-7. In the Pool’s first third-round match, Fiji defeated Georgia 45-10.
Pool D standings have Australia with 11 points, Wales with 9, Fiji 7, Georgia 5, and Uruguay 4.
Wales will play their next match against Fiji on Wednesday 9 October before finishing with Uruguay on the 13th. The Wallabies finish Pool play on Friday against Georgia, who sits in 4th place with 5 points.
Match Recap
Australia struck first with the ball out wide to wing Dane Haylett-Petty for a try. Christian Lealiifano added the extras to lead 7-0.
Uruguay Flyhalf Felipe Berchesi, who entered the match as the all-time scorer for Los Teros with 32 points, slotted a penalty goal to cut the lead to 5-3. This game after Uruguay was near the in-goal. The Wallabies Adam Coleman was sent to the bin for a high tackle.
Australia attacked back with Micheal Hooper being held up after crossing over for an apparent try. This resulted in a 5-meter scrum, with Uruguay gaining a penalty advantage and clearing.
Australia left wing Jordan Petaia, became the youngest player to score a try for the Wallabies at a Rugby World Cup and became the first player since France’s Remy Grosso in 2015 to make his test debut in an RWC match and score a try.
After Petaia’s try, Christian Lealiifano slotted the conversion to lead 14-3.
Uruguay continued to place Australia under pressure with Berchesi offloading to Nicolas Freitas for a break with Kurtley Beale making the tackle. Soon after, Wallabies No. 8 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto was sent to the bin for a high tackle.
Despite playing short-handed, the Wallabies had fullback Kurtley Beale feed Tevita Kuridrani, as the center exploited a gap in the defense for a try and then added the extras for a 19-3 lead.
Just prior to the break, Los Teros appeared to score with Manuel Diana grounding, however, Diana was ruled to be offsides, which resulted in the try not being awarded.
During the first half, Uruguay had sustained pressure and executed well at the breakdowns,with the Wallabies making handling errors and penalties to thwart attacks. Australia capitalized on Uruguay’s mistakes to lead 19-3.
Second Half
Adam Ashley Cooper entered the match from the bench for his 19th RWC appearance, one shy of Australia’s record by George Gregan.
Tevita Kuridrani opened the scoring for the Wallabies with a brace, which gave the team a bonus point. Lealiifano added the extras to lead 26-3.
Will Genia scored his first-ever RWC try, in his 15th appearance, with Lealiifano slotting again, 33-3.
Adam Ashley-Cooper gathered a high ball by Berchesi and broke down the pitch with Rodrigo Silva making a saving tackle on Kuridrani. With the Wallabies near the tryline, Genia passed to James Slipper, to crash over for the try. Lealiifano added the extras to push the lead to 40-3.
Dane Haylett-Petty then added another for a 45-3 lead.
Uruguay had the last attack going through phases with Manuel Diana try and a Berchesi conversion for a final of 45-10 in favor of Australia.
Uruguay’s Felipe Berchesi pushed his all-time Uruguay scoring glead to 37 points. Australia’s Tevita Kuridrani was named Player of the Match. He carried for 120 meters, had two clean linebreaks, beat 9 defenders and scored 2 tries.
Squads & Match Preview
Australia: 1 James Slipper 2 Folau Fainga’a 3 Allan Alaalatoa 4 Rob Simmons 5 Adam Coleman 6 Jack Demsey 7 Michael Hooper (capt.) 8 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto 9 Nic White 10 Christian Lealiifano 11 Jordan Petaia 12 Matt To’omua 13 Tevita Kuridrani 14 Dane Haylett-Petty 15 Kurtley Beale 16 Jordan Uelese 17 Sekope Kepu 18 Taniela Tupou 19 Rory Arnold 20 David Pocock 21 Will Genia 22 James O’Connor 23 Adam Ashley-Cooper
Uruguay: 1. Juan Echeverria 2. German Kessler 3. Diego Arbelo 4. Franco Lamanna 5. Manuel Leindekar 6. Manuel Ardao 7. Juan Diego Ormaechea 8. Manuel Diana 9. Agustin Ormaechea 10. Felipe Berchesi 11. Nicolas Freitas 12. Andres Vilaseca (capt.) 13. Tomas Inciarte 14. Federico Favaro 15. Rodrigo Silva 16. Guillermo Pujadas 17. Joaquin Jaunsolo 18. Juan Pedro Rombys 19. Ignacio Dotti 20. Juan Manuel Gaminara 21. Santiago Arata 22. Felipe Etcheverry 23. Agustin Della Corte
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)
Assistant referees: Jérôme Garcès (France), Karl Dickson (England)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
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