South Africa inflicted England's worst ever defeat at Twickenham in a 42-6 victory on Saturday, while New Zealand overturned a 9-3 deficit against Wales to win 29-9. In other internationals, Ireland beat Argentina 17-3 in a bad-tempered game and Scotland crushed Canada 41-0. Pacific Islanders defeated Italy 25-17 for its first win since the team's formation in 2004. In a late match, Australia beat France 18-13. In a repeat of last year's World Cup final, the Springboks punished England's errors in the same way Australia did at Twickenham last week in a 28-14 victory, and the error-ridden performance piles pressure on team manager Martin Johnson, who has lost two of his first three matches in charge. Danie Rossouw, Ruan Pienaar, Adrian Jacobs, Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana all scored tries as the Springboks, who beat the English in the World Cup final in France a year ago, registered their biggest score at Twickenham and the home side mustered only two penalties by flyhalf Danny Cipriani, who had another poor game. The margin of defeat surpassed the previous Twickenham worst, a 41-20 defeat to New Zealand in 2006. Three penalties by Wales flyhalf Stephen Jones threatened an upset at Millennium Stadium where Wales led 9-6 at halftime. Dan Carter replied with three penalties for the All Blacks. He then converted Ma'a Nonu's try after a long spell of second-half pressure by the visitors. Carter stretched the lead to 22-9 with two more penalties before Jerome Kaino crossed for a try in the final minute. Carter's conversion meant he finished with 19 points. It was the All Blacks' 21st victory in 24 matches with Wales, which have not beaten them since 1953. Ireland needed a victory in Dublin to guarantee a place among the seeded teams in the next World Cup in Zealand in 2011 and the game against Argentina could have gone either way until a late surge. There was an early blow for the Pumas when imaginative flyhalf Juan Martin Hernandez limped off with a groin strain during the warmup and had to be replaced in the starting lineup by Santiago Fernandez. “During the warm-up, he pulled out. It was impossible for him to kick and we decided not to play him,” Pumas coach Santiago Phelan said. The replacement kicked the first points of the game in the 37th minute but O'Gara leveled a minute later to send the two teams into halftime at 3-3. The Ireland flyhalf contributed three penalties and a drop goal and provided the crossfield kick that sent winger Tommy Bowe over for the only try late in the game. Ill-disciplined near the end, the Pumas had front row Rodrigo Roncero sent to the sin bin for dissent two minutes from the end.
