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The world’s number two, Australia, faced Uruguay in Birmingham and sealed a bonus point victory to enter next weekend’s crunch match against England in a strong position. Uruguay did not manage to score but delivered a meritable performance in losing by a margin which could have expected to have been significantly larger in previous World Cups.
Uruguay started well, showing width and gaining ground while recycling well and were awarded a penalty on defense. Australia, though, stole the resulting lineout and after winning a penalty of their own Sean McMahon opened the scoring as he went over untouched. Quade Cooper’s attempted conversion sailed wide but two minutes later he was on target after Joe Tomane crossed for Australia’s second try.
Uruguay showed determination after the try with positive play seeing Los Teros making two linebreaks only to knock-on. Still playing in Wallaby territory Los Teros attacked down the left with Cooper being yellow carded for strangling Agustín Ormaechea. Uruguay kicked for the corner rather than posts but after several phases Australia was awarded a scrum after Uruguay’s maul came to ground.
Uruguay got on the board in the 24th minute after Felipe Berchesi landed a difficult penalty. Uruguay had, again, been advancing with Will Skelton penalised for tackling Juan Manuel Gaminara without the ball.
Captain for the day, Dean Mumm, responded for Australia by crossing in the 27th minute. Cooper was back on the field but was unable to convert which made it 17-3. He made up for it by converting a Henry Speight try which gave Australia the bonus point, something they were unable to do against Fiji.
Ben McCalman went over for the Wallabies’ fifth score in the 36th minute which gave the Australians a 31-3 advantage. Uruguay had a chance to score after winning a lineout five metres from the Wallaby tryline and went for a rolling maul which Australia managed to fend off and, again, win a scrum. Having won a penalty there was time for a lineout which Australia won and spun the ball wide but lost control, thus ending the half.
Toulon winger Drew Mitchell scored two well-taken tries early in the second half but Cooper’s kicking-woes continued as he missed both taking his accuracy to 3 from 7. Australia’s third of the second half came after 60 minutes with McCalman scoring for the second time and Cooper making it 48-3.
Tries from McMahon, Matt Toomua in the 69th, 71st and 80th minutes saw Australia finishing with a 65-3 win. Uruguay came close to scoring several minutes from full time but their first try of the tournament will have to wait for now.
Scorers
Australia
Tries: Tomane, Mumm, Speight, Mitchell (2), McCalman (2), McMahon (2), Toomua, Kuridriani
Conversions: Cooper (5)
Uruguay
Penalty: Berchesi
Australia
15 Kurtley Beale, 14 Joe Tomane, 13 Henry Speight, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Sean McMahon, 6 Ben McCalman, 5 Will Skelton, 4 Dean Mumm (Captain), 3 Toby Smith, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Scott Sio.
16 Stephen Moore, 17 Sekope Kepu, 18 Greg Holmes, 19 Kane Douglas, 20 Rob Simmons, 21 Will Genia, 22 Bernard Foley, 23 Tevita Kuridrani.
Uruguay
15 Gaston Mieres, 14 Leandro Leivas, 13 Joaquin Prada, 12 Andres Vilaseca, 11 Rodrigo Silva, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 9 Agustin Ormaechea, 8 Juan Manuel Gaminara, 7 Matias Beer, 6 Juan De Freitas, 5 Franco Lamanna, 4 Santiago Vilaseca (Captain), 3 Mario Sagario, 2 German Kessler, 1 Mateo Sanguinetti.
16 Nicolas Klappenbach, 17 Oscar Duran, 18 Carlos Arboleya, 19 Alejandro Nieto, 20 Diego Magno, 21 Fernando Bascou, 22 Alejo Duran, 23 Alberto Roman.
