Full-time: Australia 65-3 Uruguay
Australia get the biggest win of this World Cup then. They looked very, very slick in places but made more handling errors and conceded more penalties than they would have liked. Skelton is a minor injury worry, but other than that they’ve come through the match unblemished. There’s really not much else to say, so I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Michael Butler for Scotland v USA right here. Bye!
Updated
Conversion (Cooper 80) Australia 65-3 Uruguay
From the right-hand touchline, Cooper ends the match by nailing his fifth kick. It’s a good effort, that one.
Try! (Kuridrani 80) Australia 63-3 Uruguay
Off the top it comes, quickly, and Cooper passes to Speight. He bounces off the tackle and Phipps gets it quickly out to Kuridrani, who barges over from short range in the right-hand corner.
Updated
80 min Penalty to Australia at the scrum as Klappenbach doesn’t bind correctly. Cooper kicks to touch inside the 22 on the left and we’ll have one more go.
79 min It doesn’t improve and Kuridrani, on just now for Toomua, spreads it right as Australia go from their 22. A show-and-go from Mitchell gets the winger through a gap and over halfway, but the pass back inside is dropped by Cooper after a needless offload from Kuridrani.
78 min The crowd finds its voice as Ormaechea has a dart with a penalty coming. Cheika won’t be happy with how many his side have conceded. Anyway, Ormaechea sticks it into the corner again in the hope that his side’s lineout improves.
77 min After an inglorious mess of a scrum, Uruguay just about come up with the ball. It’s very, very slow though.
76 min It’s stolen again, but Klappenbach wins the turnover just metres from Australia’s line. They drive over, but it’s clearly held up and they’ll have a scrum five.
75 min Into the right-hand corner goes Ormaechea.
Updated
74 min Dean Mumm knocks on in contact from the restart, so Uruguay get the scrum inside the 22. At which juncture, Matias Beer takes exception to something – the popularity of Castelmaine, perhaps – and tries to begin a scuffle. No one on the Australia side is especially interested though and it peters out. Penalty to Uruguay at the scrum; Ormaechea tries to go quickly, but goes from the wrong mark.
73 min Another miss as Cooper scuffs a simple one. Four from 10 for him.
Try! (Toomua 71) Australia 58-3 Uruguay
Off go Andres Vilaseca, Berchesi and Gaminara; on come Roman, Druan and Bascou. And through a huge gap goes Cooper, through another goes Beale and the full-back gives it to Toomua on the loop. Slick.
Updated
70 min McMahon looks like he might be hobbling a bit after that. It’s not like there was any real physical exertion on his part after that armchair ride. The conversion goes wide.
Try! (McMahon 69) Australia 53-3 Uruguay
The maul goes for a wander over the line.
68 min Scrum Australia, about 10 metres to the left of the posts and not much further out from the line. It’s McCalman who picks it up and sets it inside; Ormaechea disrupts at the breakdown, but it’s a penalty for standing up at the scrum. Yellow card next time, says Gauzere, as Cooper pops it in the corner.
67 min Toby Smith makes a good 20 metres by simply running through half a dozen tacklers or so. Magno tries to secure the turnover at the breakdown, but knocks it on.
66 min Beale gets too cocky and, looking to dummy, accidentally lets go of the ball and throws it into touch. Mumm steals the lineout and Australia go wide from halfway though.
65 min Speight barrels into contact but knocks on, so Berchesi clears. With advantage over, Beale will run it back.
64 min Uruguay shove Australia off the ball, but their joy is short lived as Nieto breaks off and tries to nab it before the ball was out. Cooper kicks to touch on the Uruguay 10 metre line.
Apologies, that went forward off the scrum-half Ormaechea. He’s claiming it went backwards, but it didn’t.
63 min Berchesi restarts with a deep kick, which Cooper thumps into touch 10 metres outside his 22. Vilaseca wins the lineout, but knocks on as he goes to ground.
Conversion (Cooper 62) Australia 48-3 Uruguay
This time Cooper slots it from out left.
Try! (McCalman 61) Australia 46-3 Uruguay
This time the handling is good. It’s worked right, then comes left again and Simmons sucks in defenders with his charge. Beale delays his pass out to McCalman and the flanker goes over on the left for his second.
Updated
60 min Again Australia win it, this time, Cooper runs round to the left, but again a pass goes to ground and it’s turned over. Berchesi tries to clear from under his own posts, but McMahon charges it down. He tries again and Mitchell fields it 40 metres out and runs it back, setting up another attack.
59 min But the South Americans are effortlessly shoved off the ball. It goes right to Speight then back inside to McCalman. The number six spills it though, so we have another scrum in a similar position to the last.
58 min Cooper knocks on after a despairing tap tackle from Magno. Uruguay scrum, 13 metres inside their own half and dead centre.
57 min That’s the end of the day for the giant Skelton, as he’s replaced by Kane Douglas. Cooper kicks the penalty over halfway to touch on the right and from the lineout Toomua looks to go through the line on the angle. Uruguay’s defence is tight for now.
Skelton is down and receiving treatment.
56 min In fact Magno has gone into the second row. Lamanna is off too, with Nieto coming on and going to flanker. Australia steal the lineout then get a penalty as Duran goes off his feet at a ruck.
55 min Now Magno comes on, for De Freitas. Kepu bores in at the scrum and Uruguay get the penalty.
54 min Some kicks go back and forth, before Kepu finds himself at centre and goes on the crash ball. It goes right and Tomane goes flying down the wing, stepping past tackles in no space, before flinging it back inside for Phipps; however the ball bounces forwards. Phipps was then taken out off the ball by a shoulder charge, but there’s no action taken.
53 min From wide on the left, Cooper hooks it. These haven’t been easy ones, in fairness, that he’s missed. Klappenbach and the man so good they only needed to name him once, Duran, come on for Sanguinetti and Sagario in the front row.
Try! (Mitchell 52) Australia 41-3 Uruguay
I was just writing that this feels like a matter of time as McCalman wiggles through a tackle. Cooper loops around, Jonny Sexton style, and sends out a good, long, flat pass to send Mitchell over in the corner.
Updated
51 min From an Australian scrum on their own 10 metre line they get another penalty. Cooper to touch again, on the left, midway inside the Uruguayan half. “Uruguay” is a pain of a word to type you know. From the lineout, Australia look to put width on it.
50 min I might have lied earlier: Magno doesn’t appear to be on, although I’m sure I saw him just before kick-off. Kepu comes on for Sio for Australia.
49 min Cooper’s conversion drifts off to the left. I can’t see him starting against England after this display from the tee.
Try! (Mitchell 48) Australia 36-3 Uruguay
Incidentally, Simons replaced Palu and Arboleya cames on for Palu. From the lineout, they go through two phases then Mitchell comes around on the loop, steps through three tackles nicely and goes over on the right.
Updated
46 min Mitchell kicks clear and Leivas runs it back. Uruguay with possession about 20 metres inside the Australia half, but there’s a penalty as Beer holds on to the ball. Cooper goes to touch on the 22, on the left.
45 min It’s at a standstill, then Smith rips the ball away in the tackle. It’s quickly turned back over though, and Bercehsi stabs it into the opposite corner. We have an injury issue for one of the Uruguayans though – can’t see who it is just yet.
44 min Again Uruguay win the lineout and again they can’t shove Australia over. This time though they’ve retained possession, but they’re stuck 10 metres out in the bottom left-hand corner.
43 min The clock isn’t showing, so I’m guessing at the times here, but we go to the corner again.
42 min Berchesi finds touch on the left, just inside the 22. Uruguay win it and go through the hands, with Silva coming off his wing and nearly squirming through. Right it goes to Mieres, then Ormaechea tries to snipe down the blindside from 10 metres. He’s taken into touch, but we go back for a penalty as McCalman went in at the side.
41 min Cooper gets things back underway and Uruguay look to run it back. Ormaechea sends up a box kick and it bounces back into the hands of Silva, before Gauzere blows his whistle and awards a penalty for a high Australian tackle.
Back out come the players. Arboleya and Magno are on for Uruguay and Simmons is on for Australia.
Half-time analysis
This is pretty fair:
@DanLucas86 Aussies over playing things, play more direct and tries would quickly add up I reckon
— Gerard Boyd (@dundee8cologne1) September 27, 2015
Then again, so is this:
That went about as expected. It’s all too easy for Australia, although they’ve made more handling errors than Cheika will be happy with. See you in 10.
Half-time: Australia 31-3 Uruguay
It goes wide from the lineout, with Toomua sending a long pass out on the bounce to Mitchell. They go through one more phase, then Toomua looks to find Mitchell again but puts the pass behind him into touch.
40 min Ormaechea comes around the back to nab the ball, but in doing so ignores the referee’s instructions to “stay, nine”. Penalty Australia, which Cooper kicks to touch just inside his own half. We just about have time for the lineout.
39 min It’s thrown to the front and Uruguay set the rolling maul. It goes forward very slowly, albeit crabbing towards touch. The backs come in to add their weight, but there’s not a huge amount of it, it’s held up and Australia get the feed to the scrum, much to Gamanara’s consternation.
Michael Cheika, the world’s leading rugby hipster, cuts a frustrated figure on the bench as McCalman gets a cut to the head bandaged up.
38 min Uruguay play the patient game, going through the phases and they are rewarded with a penalty as Mumm fails to roll away from a breakdown. Berchesi sticks it in the left-hand corner.
37 min From the restart, Cooper elects to kick but Mierese does brilliantly to keep it in play, tapping it back in. Berchesi makes a right horlicks of his attempted return kick, scuffing it, but the ball bounces kindly off an Australian body back to the fly-half and he breaks!
Try! (McCalman 36 + Cooper con) Australia 31-3 Uruguay
Skelton peels off the back and takes it into contact. The ball is out of the breakdown before Urugay can react, Cooper pops it inside and McCalman goes through the ragged backline and under the posts.
Updated
35 min From the lineout on halfway, Toomua crashes over the gainline. It goes left and Australia turn it over again, but there’s a penalty against Gamanara for going over the 15 metre line before the lineout had been completed. Cooper kicks to touch in the 22.
34 min It’s turned over by Tomane and Ormaechea chips over the top into space. Cooper goes back to cover and is dragged into touch by Silva, but the Uruguayan wing was in front of the kicker.
33 min I don’t know as it’s even worth mentioning, but that’s the bonus point for Australia. From the restart, Phipps puts up a high box kick, which Mieres runs back. After an ambitious offload, Ormaechea looks to kick to the corner but misses touch.
Conversion (Cooper 32) Australia 24-3 Uruguay
Cooper curls it over from the touchline.
Try! (Speight 31) Australia 22-3 Uruguay
Australia have it on the right. They send it left through the hands and, quite frankly, it could have been anyone dotting it down in the left-hand corner.
Updated
30 min A poor lineout throw by Kessler and Australia are, in no time, back in the 22.
29 min Cooper kicks long into an empty space in the Uruguayan half. Tomane goes haring after it, but Gamanara Santiago Vilaseca goes back and gathers well, and indeed wins a penalty as McMahon goes off his feet.
28 min From hero to zero, sort of, Mumm flaps at the restart and drops it on his own 22. Gamanara looks to make ground, but the Australian defence is solid. They go right and Silva comes off his wing and goes through a gap! He’s stopped and turned though...
27 min Cooper slices his conversion ever so slightly and sends it wide of the near post.
Try! (Mumm 26) Australia 17-3 Uruguay
Mitchell comes off his wing from the lineout as Australia look to thunder their way over. It’s recycled right to Mumm, who barges through a couple of tackles and dots down on the right.
Updated
25 min Cooper returns as Prada makes a mistake at the restart, putting his foot in touch late and giving away the lineout rather than earning the midfield scrum as he intended.
Updated
Penalty (Berchesi 24) Australia 12-3 Uruguay
This time they’re going to go for goal, around 35 metres out and 15 in from the right touchline. It’s a clean strike and sends it sailing through the posts.
23 min Free-kick to Uruguay at the scrum and they go quickly. Australia don’t retreat, so they get another 10 metres forward, then there’s a wee scuffle as Uruguay get a penalty for a late tackle by Skelton.
22 min Beer wins the lineout on his own 10 metre line and, after the ball is moved inside, Urugay switch the play back towards the touchline. It’s a bad idea, as Mumm wins the turnover, but when it goes left Beale’s pass goes to Toomua’s bootlaces and the centre knocks it on.
21 min Ormaechea kicks clear and Tomane runs it back on the outside. He kicks ahead and Mieres is caught, but it’s knocked on by an Australian hand in the tackle. Toomua comes in to slow it down, but his clearout is round the neck and Berchesi can clear with the penalty.
20 min Back come Australia through Mitchell, but he loses it in contact on the flank. The wing has had a woeful start.
19 min Australia takes the scrum and move it left, with Speight flying through an enormous hole. He has two men outside him for the finish, but the retreating Leivas intercepts the pass! Ormaechea box kicks clear.
18 min Actually that was harsh on Sanguinetti as behind him, De Freitas came off the scrum to watch Phipps. Toomua kicks to touch on the 10 metre line and from that, Australia get a free-kick as Uruguay have too many men in there. At Villa Park, some [Jeremy Kyle] starts playing the effing bagpipes.
17 min Sanguinetti goes to ground and Australia get the penalty.
16 min It’s taken at the front and Uruguay form the driving maul. It goes down six metres out, so they pick and drive at the 14-man Australia defence. Like the National song, it’s a slow show; no ground is made before they pick up and form another maul with 13 men in it trying to get the ball back. Down it goes and that’s a scrum to Australia.
15 min Yep that’s a high tackle from Cooper on Ormaechea at the breakdown. He started round the chest, but his arm slipped up around the neck. Yellow card for Cooper, which seems a touch harsh. It was a penalty, but I wouldn’t have said any more. Berchesi goes to touch again.
14 min Cooper kicks long from the scrum – I can’t see that happening too often today – and Mieres returns with a high one. The ball is allowed to bounce and it’s gathered by Silva, who goes on a foray down the left-touchline. But then play is stopped and we’re going to the TMO to check a tackle by Cooper.
13 min Uruguay look to play patiently but it’s knocked on in the middle and Australia look to counter. Skelton is cut down though on the 10 metre line and Beer comes forward with it. It’s recycled left, quickly too, but Andres Vilaseca knocks on on the 22.
12 min Cheers as Berchesi goes for touch, finding it just outside the 22. The throw goes long to De Freitas.
11 min Berchesi’s restart is taken by captain Mumm on the 22. Left it goes, across the 22 at pace, but then Mitchell fumbles it and coughs up possession. The ruck is formed and then Mitchell compounds his error by going offside.
Updated
Conversion (Cooper 10) Australia 12-0 Uruguay
From wide on the right, Cooper finds his radar.
Try! (Tomane 9) Australia 10-0 Uruguay
McMahon takes the restart on the 22 and runs almost unchallenged up to halfway. It’s stabbed through into the 22 by Cooper, who chases and gathers his own kick. A nice offload out the back of the hand to Tomane, who wanders over in the corner.
Updated
9 min From wide on the left, Cooper sends his conversion drifting off to the right, much to the crowd’s amusement. It wasn’t exactly an easy kick, so that seems a bit churlish.
Try! (McMahon 7) Australia 5-0 Uruguay
Uruguay have the lineout but it’s pinched by Mumm. Sagario comes offside and Cooper sticks it into touch, just inside the 22 on the left, with a conservative kick. From the lineout the driving maul is formed, 15 metres out and McMahon comes off the back of it to pop over in the corner unopposed.
Updated
5 min The lineout is won by Uruguay nine metres inside the Australian half. They’re crabbing across the pitch, with Ormaechea getting quick ball. His final ball goes into touch, beyond Silva and suddenly Australia are away. They take a quick lineout with the defence asleep and Beale is clear down the left touchline. He pops it inside to Mitchell for the easy score, but the Toulon man drops it!
4 min After a few probing drives, Uruguay are turned over on the 10 metre line thanks to good work at the breakdown by Cooper of all people. It’s flung right, but Toomua’s pass can’t find Speight and goes into touch.
3 min Somehow Uruguay come out of that splintered scrum with the ball as Gaminara carries it from the base.
2 min Well organised defence there from Uruguay, although they did tend to get barrelled backwards in contact quite easily. Still, they’ve got themselves a scrum in the centre of the pitch, on the Australia 10 metre line.
1 min On World Cup debut, Pascal Gauzere blows his whistle and Berchesi gets the game underway for Uruguay. Australia come charging forward, with Toomua driving up over the 10 metre line. Through the hands they go, with the ball switched back inside to Speight. Eventually Cooper kicks for the corner, but he overcooks it and the ball goes touch in goal.
Head-to-head record
Played 0, Australia 0, Uruguay 0, draws 0.
@DanLucas86 which is bigger - Australia's likely final score, or Joe Tomane's hair?
— Sam Macey (@DAMNATiON_X) September 27, 2015
Oh the hair. Not even close.
Here we go. Out come the teams. Dean Mumm leads Australia just a week or so after becoming a dad. I’d offer my congratulations, but he’s probably not reading this.
Is anyone reading this?
Predictions then? I don’t think we’ll see a cricket score. Actually no scratch that, I do. I’m going for Australia, 60-10.
You all read the Charlie Brooker piece, didn’t you?
@DanLucas86 I don't know Jeremy Kyle but I think I do, if you know what I mean. Thereby agreeing with you that he's an [expletive].
— Rick Back (@rickback180) September 27, 2015
Essential pre-match reading
Paul Rees has written about why Australia might just be the most impressive side in the tournament so far. For my money, he’s right.
Alternatively there’s my colleague* Charlie Brooker on Jeremy Kyle, if that’s more your thing. You have half an hour, time to read both.
*Technically this is true, I think, and I just wanted to write that. The closest I’ve ever come to actually meeting or talking to or having any interaction at all with Charlie Brooker was yesterday, when I thought I saw him on the tube but the guy had a French accent. So it probably wasn’t him.
Mike Hytner in our Australia office has just been in touch with a small correction: Kick-off is 9pm Sydney time. Don’t worry guys, I’m not being tardy.
ITV’s run-in to today’s game is professional [expletive] Jeremy Kyle and his Victorian circus of cruelty in a cheap suit. Can we have X Factor back?
A bit of Pool A news for you and it’s not good for Wales fans. According to Shaun Edwards (according to Twitter), Hallam Amos and Scott Williams have “long-term” injuries. Gavin Henson sits by his phone anxiously.
The teams
Australia
Kurtley Beale, Joe Tomane, Henry Speight, Matt Toomua, Drew Mitchell, Quade Cooper, Nick Phipps; Wycliff Palu, Sean McMahon, Ben McCalman, Will Skelton, Dean Mumm, Toby Smith, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Scott Sio.
Replacements: Stephen Moore, Sekope Kepu, Greg Holmes, Kane Douglas, Rob Simmons, Will Genia, Bernard Foley, Tevita Kuridrani.
Uruguay
Gaston Mieres, Leandro Leivas, Joaquin Prada, Andres Vilaseca, Rodrigo Silva, Felipe Berchesi, Agustin Ormaechea; Juan Manuel Gaminara, Matias Beer, Juan De Freitas, Franco Lamanna, Santiago Vilaseca, Mario Sagario, German Kessler, Mateo Sanguinetti.
Replacements: Nicolas Klappenbach, Oscar Duran, Carlos Arboleya, Alejandro Nieto, Diego Magno, Fernando Bascou, Alejo Druan, Alberto Roman.
Updated
Preamble
Morning, folks. Ah right, um. Preamble? Yes, preamble. Here we go with the preamble, building up to this match, which is Australia v Uruguay. That’s Australia, the world’s number-two-ranked team, arguably the most settled at this World Cup already, against Uruguay, who are considerably worse than them. So here we go with the preamble.
Yes, this is one of those games that can only loosely be called a match. That match between South Africa and Japan may have taught a two-times World Cup winner about hubris and a whole load of pundits about blasé predictions, but this is a mismatch on a completely different scale. For one thing, Australia are a way better team than South Africa (before this World Cup, the Springboks had only won once in 2015) and Uruguay lost their two warm-up games against Japan by an aggregate of 70 points to eight.
Obviously this isn’t a full-strength Australia team. Michael Cheika has made 14 changes from the side that looked good, but didn’t get a bonus point, against Fiji and it would have been 15 if not for the concussion suffered by James Slipper in that match. The temptation is to say that this is a no-win situation for the Wallabies: win comfortably with a bonus point and the world will shrug, or suffer some more injuries – or worse, don’t win well and don’t get the four tries – and there will be questions over the depth of their squad.
That’s not entirely fair though. As I mentioned previously, there are those who thought that the Australians looked like the most fluid, settled, slick team in the tournament to date. Cruising to a massive win here, against a Uruguayan team who are nowhere near as bad as many observers thought pre-tournament, and no one will be surprised if they comfortably go deep into the tournament.
Uruguay are tenacious opponents. They led Wales 6-0 at one point in their opener and the resolve they showed in coming from behind against Russia to qualify for this tournament will not be matched by anyone else. Can they win? No, almost certainly not. But, if they build around their impressive half-back fulcrum, they can be a major pain in the arse for the Wallabies.
Kick-off is at 12pm BST. That’s 10pm in Sydney, or 8am for our readers in Montevideo.
