New Zealand showcase their quality vs Fiji in first game in San Diego for 44 years; All Blacks ultimately won 47-5; Australia beat Georgia 40-29 but Aka Tabutsadze lit up the game finishing a brilliant end-to-end try; South Africa beat Portugal 64-21 as Makazole Mapimpi scores hat-trick
Saturday 20 July 2024 18:32, UK
New Zealand ran in seven tries to trounce Fiji 47-5, Australia overcame Georgia 40-29, while South Africa beat Portugal 64-21.
The All Blacks were playing their first rugby match in San Diego in 44 years and ran in tries through Caleb Clarke, Cortez Ratima, Billy Proctor, Ardie Savea, Sevu Reece, Ethan de Groot and George Bell while fly-half Damian McKenzie kicked 12 points.
Vilimoni Botitu scored Fiji's only try.
"We talked about grinding them down. It took a bit of time to do that," All Blacks captain Scott Barrett said.
"We got the rewards on the end of that. But Fiji certainly showed up tonight in the physical areas.
"It's been amazing to come to San Diego. We want to thank the rugby community here. We really felt the support and there are fans from all over the place coming to watch and we really felt that love."
Against Georgia, Australia scored four first-half tries to take command of the match.
The Wallabies led 26-10 at half-time. Though the game tightened up, Australia went on to keep Joe Schmidt's record perfect in his start as head coach.
Georgia, in their first Test match in Australia, took a 3-0 lead in the second minute, but that lead lasted only three minutes before the Wallabies scored their first try through centre Hunter Paisami.
In the second half, with Wallabies winger Filipo Daugunu off for a red card, Davit Niniashvili took advantage of a perfect bounce and the full-back regained his own grubber that ricocheted off Tom Wright for a try to make the score to 26-17.
Five minutes later, Georgia closed to within two points - 26-24 - when Aka Tabutsadze kicked from his own line and re-gathered the ball to go 110m for a brilliant end-to-end try.
But the Wallabies came right back with a try to take a 33-24 lead. Georgia saw Niniashvili sin-binned for a foul. The Wallabies had a try called back for obstruction but went ahead 40-24 on Fraser McReight's second try of the afternoon to all but clinch the match.
Wing Makazole Mapimpi scored a hat-trick of tries as South Africa overwhelmed a gutsy but outgunned Portugal 64-21 despite being down a man for all but two minutes of Saturday's clash at the Free State Stadium.
The World Cup winners were stung early in their first Test meeting against 15th-ranked Portugal when centre Andre Esterhuizen was sent off for an illegal head-high tackle in the second minute.
They were then caught out by a breakaway try for the visitors, brilliantly finished off by winger Jose Paiva dos Santos in the 11th minute.
But the top-ranked Springboks, who made 14 changes from the side that narrowly lost to Ireland in Durban last week, rallied from 0-7 down to dominate in a festival of running rugby in front of a capacity crowd.
South Africa, with seven debutants used in the match, outscored Portugal by 10 tries to three.
