France, Scotland, Fiji win at Rugby World Cup

he Brave Blossoms of Japan and The Oaks of Romania challenged rugby's rigid pecking order Saturday, threatening to bring down major European powers France and Scotland on the first full day of matches at the Rugby World Cup.

A day after an opening ceremony and curtain-raising match stretched the capacity of New Zealand's largest city, bringing public transport to a standstill, normal service resumed with matches which enlivened the tournament because they were not mis-matches.

Tonga's sturdy performance against the All Blacks on opening night - its 41-10 loss was its smallest in four matches against the World No.1 - set a tone that permeated the second day.

France beat Japan 47-21, Scotland needed two late tries to break the hearts of the Romanian Oaks 34-24 and Fiji held out stout Namibia 49-25 to post its ninth win in 21 matches at Rugby World Cups.

French captain Thierry Dusautoir expressed some relief after Japan stretched his squad to the limit before conceding 22 points in the last 10 minutes.

"I'm quite happy that they did this because we have started to play at this tournament and they made us understand that we need to play a different level at the World Cup,'' he said.

The closer than expected result took some attention off the organizational issues exposed on the opening day.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown said he would "step up to the plate'' to confront problems with public transport which all but paralyzed his city before, during and after the opening ceremony and match.

Brown took a car to Eden Park stadium Friday night while trains ground to a halt, buses were gridlocked and ferries refused to carry passengers as almost 200,000 people swamped Auckland's central city for the tournament's opening party.

New Zealand's Rugby World Cup minister, Murray McCully, said the failures were unacceptable.

"Auckland's public transport system failed to deliver to the required standard,'' he said.

Some coaches will be looking for explanations, too, after things didn't go quite right for the bigger teams on Saturday.

From the first match of the day between Scotland and Romania in New Zealand's southern-most city, Invercargill, until France beat Japan in Auckland's northern suburbs, second-day matches delivered thrills and a sense of the unexpected.

Winger Simon Danielli scored two late tries to lead Scotland's rally which avoided the first major upset of the Cup in only the second match.

Scotland trailed 24-21 with less than 10 minutes left before a late penalty leveled the match and Danielli's tries in the 75th and 78th minutes clinched it. But not before the resurgent Romanians nearly beat a Tier 1 nation for the first time at a World Cup.

The last time the teams met, Scotland beat Romania 42-0. After Mike Blair and Jon Ansbro scored early tries, it looked like another rout was in the works.

But Romania, fielding its most experienced starting lineup ever, outplayed Scotland for much of the second half and tries by prop Mihaita Lazar and No. 8 Daniel Carpo gave the eastern Europeans the lead with 13 minutes left.

"We missed 10 minutes to create history,'' Romania coach Romeo Gontineac said. "We had a very good game.

"I'm proud of all of them. We were talking a lot about things like respect, solidarity and courage and during this match those words came true.''

Two-time finalist France crossed via lock Julien Pierre, flyhalf Francois Trinh-Duc and winger Vincent Clerc to take a seemingly comfortable 25-11 lead at the break against Japan.

But the Japanese responded with 10 unanswered points to move within four points.

Scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili's penalty gave France some breathing space before lock Lionel Nallet and Pascal Pape soothed frayed nerves with late tries.

Winger Vereniki Goneva became an early star of the tournament, scoring four tries in his World Cup debut in Fiji's flattering win over Namibia.

The former sevens star racked up a hattrick by half time, when Fiji led 32-15 lead, then claimed the fourth in the 52nd minute.

Goneva became the first Fijian to score four tries in a World Cup match, and the first in a test since Rupeni Caucaunibuca against Chile in 2003.

"Some fantastic efforts, especially by Vereniki - that was pretty special on debut,'' captain Deacon Manu said. "It was just fantastic to get the result.

"We probably didn't play in the right areas but when we did get out of our own half we put some pressure on. To the credit of the Namibians, they put pressure on the whole match anyway they could.''

Namibia showed just as much skill and joy at running the ball as the Fijians, scoring two classy tries, dominating long periods, and deservedly finishing with its most points in a World Cup match.