Their pressure was rewarded in the 20th minute when Danielli who

Their pressure was rewarded in the 20th minute when Danielli, who scored with his first touch after coming on as a replacement against Japan, injected some pace into the line on the left to score the first try.Five minutes later, he scored his second, this time using strength rather than speed to force his way through after a vintage Townsend break had created the opening.In the meantime, the United States had wasted too many promising situations by kicking away possession, but came closest to a try in first-half injury time when their forwards piled up on the Scottish line. Tom Smith averted the danger with a hand in the ruck to earn the prop a yellow card, leaving Hercus a simple penalty to reduce the deficit at the turnaround to 24-9.Then the Americans almost made a great start to the second half when a Hercus penalty hit the post and the centre Phillip Eloff charged in to collect the rebound and dive over the line, only for the score to be ruled out for a knock-on. Because if the Americans had been on form themselves, then this could easily have been the first real shock of the tournament.Maybe they had not recovered from last week’s one-point loss to Fiji, because they rarely threatened the opposition’s line. “If we go into the French game with that kind of penalty count then we’ll be on the end of a hammering,” said their hooker and captain for the evening, Gordon Bulloch, doing his bit for the glaringly obvious.The bare facts read that Danielli’s double, in the space of five minutes midway through the opening period, and another for the prop Gavin Kerr, as well as late scores for Gregor Townsend and Chris Paterson, saw off a US team for whom Mike Hercus kicked five penalties But that was only part of the story.

Japan gave them all sorts of problems the week before and, unwittingly, the Americans – and, indeed, the referee – made their plight no easier.Two well taken tries by the all-action wing Simon Danielli provided the highlight of a disjointed evening in which Scotland looked disorganised throughout and were constantly penalised for technical infringements But still they had too much quality for the Eagles. “I think if we build on particularly the performance in the first half then I think there’s some confidence there,” McGeechan said, apparently ignoring the mess that followed.The major downside for the night, assuming a shoulder injury to Jon Petrie is as minor as the team doctors believe, was the high penalty count. Jonathan Kaplan stung the Scots for 17 penalties, seven of those from rucks and mauls. For their part, Namibia feel betrayed by what they consider to be “one law for the rich, another for the poor”.The England coach, Clive Woodward, entered gleefully into a new round of public banter with the vast army of Australian pundits, all of whom criticised the quality of the red rose performance against the Boks, despite the final scoreline.

“I would like to keep reminding everyone that Test rugby is about winning,” Woodward said, clearly not fearing for a second that his words might make him a hostage to fortune at some point in the near future “I think it’s fantastic. Every morning when I get up, I find the papers more and more amusing.”. Perhaps Scotland and Wales should split to form the “Sick Nations Championship”, so miserably are the two performing at the supposedly healthy end of world rugby at the moment. Yesterday, it was the turn of Ian McGeechan’s side to conjure a display well below their station as they laboured past the USA Eagles in a match that never got off into full flight. Presumably, he thought the ground was unusually lumpy.Neither incident was especially offensive; they were not in the same league as Rupeni Caucaunibuca’s astonishing assault on Olivier Magne during the Fiji-France game – an explosion of raw anger that earned the brilliant Pacific Islander a two-match ban.

But the World Cup administrators would do well to heed the various concerns expressed yesterday.South Africa, still smarting from the wave of criticism that surged in their direction after the violent match with England at Twickenham 11 months ago, are now openly wondering if one of their players would have escaped censure for a Dallaglio-style “slap”. The Englishman claimed Delport’s hand was on his face, and therefore felt honour-bound to “give him a slap”. O’Connell insisted he did not know Graham was on the floor when contact was made. O’Connell was warned by the referee, Andrew Cole, of Australia, but not sent to the sin-bin.

As the 24-hour deadline for a citing drew near, the silence from the disciplinary staff was deafening.Needless to say, both Dallaglio and O’Connell put forward mitigating circumstances. A World Cup spokesman described the remark as “unacceptable” and said Waterston could expect a formal ear-wigging.He was incensed at an incident during his team’s match with Ireland on Sunday, when the Munster lock Paul O’Connell repeatedly planted his boots with considerable force on the prone figure of his opposite number, Archie Graham, at a driving maul. If you can set your clocks and watches by the World Cup – every four years, at the most inconvenient point in the calendar from everyone’s perspective except the Australians’ – you can also set them by the first row over disciplinary decisions. It always takes place in the opening fortnight of the tournament, and it always involves teams who, for one reason or another, feel the system is about as fair and equal as the application procedure for Eton. It was, I think, understandable that Jones assumed the kicking tasks against Tonga. That is his speciality, even though Harris had secured a 100 per cent return against Canada. But once Jones had shown he was out of touch, the duties should have been handed over to Harris.England could well meet Wales in a quarter-final if the Welsh beat Italy on Saturday.