All matches live on ITV1
Date | Venue | Tries | |
| Sat 8 Oct | IRELAND 10-22 WALES | Wellington | 1-3 |
| Sat 8 Oct | ENGLAND 12-19 FRANCE | Eden Park, Auckland | 2-2 |
| Sun 9 Oct | SOUTH AFRICA 9-11 AUSTRALIA | Wellington | 0-1 |
| Sun 9 Oct | NEW ZEALAND 33-10 ARGENTINA | Eden Park, Auckland | 2-1 |
A LATE try by Chris Ashton ended Scotland's World Cup hopes and took England into the quarter finals after a 16-12 win in Auckland.
Scotland enjoyed a promising 9-3 lead at half time in a match which they needed to win by eight clear points to stand a realistic chance of progression.
But the failure to score a single try against either England or Argentina proved to be decisive when Ashton crossed the line with just two minutes left.
England, then, make it into the quarter finals on the back of four straight wins - but it has hardly been smooth going so far for Martin Johnson's men in New Zealand.
A lack of discipline, both on and off the field, has threatened to derail England's bid to make to a third straight World Cup Final.
There are also concerns about Jonny Wilkinson's under-par kicking form, with his success rate falling below 50%, and his fitness alongside that of Mike Tindall.
At least, England's quarter final match-up has pitted them, as expected, against France who have been in even worse shape, losing two of their four fixtures so far.
The first defeat, to New Zealand, would have been generally more acceptable if they had not collapsed so feebly inside 20 minutes having controlled the opening spell of possession and territory.
However, there are really no excuses for the other loss to Tonga in which even a last-minute Vincent Clerc try could not hide Gallic embarrassment.
Of course, it has been known in the past for the French to surprise when it is least expected - and England will need to be wary of that - but there seems to be little faith in Marc Lievremont's ever-changing selections.
Elsewhere, the draw ensures there will be two representatives from the northern hemisphere in the semi finals with the impressive Irish - looking for a first ever appearance in the last four - taking on Wales, who have not reached that stage since 1987.
Indeed, Ireland produced the biggest result of the Pool stage, and totally upset the balance of the tournament, by ripping up the form book to beat Australia 15-6.
In an abrasive kicking game, played in dreadful weather, Ireland eventually gained the upper hand thanks to two second half penalties by Ronan O'Gara.
And so Tri-Nations champions Australia had to settle for second place while the Irish, who had lost all four of their warm-up games, won all four of their Pool matches.
But, despite their good form, Ireland will know they are in for a tough test against Wales who would have won their own section if they could have held out in the last quarter of the game against South Africa.
Nevertheless, the Welsh were not downhearted by their narrow failure, refusing to panic as they edged past Samoa before turning on the style against Namibia in a record win.
Warren Gatland's side then finished the Pool stages by beating Fiji 66-0 to record 23 tries from their four matches, a figure beaten only by Australia (25) and New Zealand (36).
The All Blacks were by far and away the best all-round side in the Pool Stages, giving none of their opponents the sniff of a chance with a series of dominant performances.
Even France came nowhere near to matching Graham Henry's team - after a brief nine-minute opening sortie - as New Zealand got early revenge for their shock quarter final exit four years ago.
The ABs have since been rocked by injury woes with record international points scorer, fly-half Dan Carter, ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a groin strain.
His deputy, Colin Slade, looked nervous at times when called upon during the Pool stages and it will be fascinating to see how the 23-year-old deals with the pressure.
It hardly helps that the favourites have been dumped into the more difficult side of the draw through no fault of their own - they can blame Australia's slip-up to Ireland for that.
But what it does mean, of course, is that if New Zealand do eventually end their 24-year wait for the William Webb Ellis trophy, no one can suggest they do not deserve it.
First, though, the ABs should be comfortable in dealing with the modest threat of Argentina who only reached this stage thanks to a one-point win over Scotland.
The Argentines are nothing like the threat of four years ago and scored just 10 tries in their four matches so far as compared to the New Zealanders' 36. There should be a similar imbalance in the final score of this last eight match.
That leaves just one game as defending champions South Africa take on Australia, which looks a much closer call.
Robbie Deans' Wallabies may have flopped in the Pool stages against Ireland but they still got through and have recent memories of beating South Africa convincingly in the Tri-Nations.
Meanwhile, though the Springboks have won all four of their games so far, they did not had it all their own way against Wales or Samoa, the two stronger sides in their Pool.
In worse news for the holders, they have lost centre Frans Steyn to injury while Australia welcome back the influential David Pocock.
But, while Bryan Habana is around hoping to extend his lead as South Africa's record try scorer, the Boks will remain as dangerous as ever.
GOING HOME: FIRST ROUND FALLERS
Pool A
Tonga must be cursing their 25-20 defeat to Canada, which meant their incredible 19-14 victory over the shambolic French counted for nought. A win against the Canadians would have taken the Tongans through at France's expense but two tries in the last 12 minutes gave the North Americans the win.
Canada's never-say-die attitude was a theme of their play as they scored late again to sneak a 23-23 draw against Japan. The Japanese, who will host the 2019 tournament, were disappointing and finished bottom.
Pool B
Toothless Scotland failed to score a try against either England or Argentina, and only managed four tries overall, as they went out of the Pool stages of a World Cup for the first time ever. The Scots held the lead late on in both of those vital matches but their lack of cutting edge meant they could not pull clear and see it through.
Even against the minnows - Georgia and Romania - Scotland toiled, winning those matches 15-6 and 34-24 respectively. Georgia easily beat Romania in their basement tussle to confirm their status as Europe's best team outside of the Six Nations.
Pool C
Italy failed to turn up on the big occasions as they extended their woeful record of never having progressed from the Pool stages to seven World Cups. At 6-6 at half-time against Australia, it looked like the Azzurri were in good shape to challenge the top two but the Wallabies blew Nick Mallett's men away in the second half, eventually winning 32-6. Of course, Ireland's incredible win over the Australians opened the group back up and gave the Italians another chance of progression against the Irish but another second half collapse saw Italy defeated 36-6, having only been 9-6 behind at the break.
The USA will have been relieved to beat Russia in their second match in four days, having played well but ultimately gone down to a 22-10 defeat to Ireland on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Otherwise, this was an unremarkable tournament for the Americans who managed just four tries throughout. The Russians scored double that number and generally attacked well on their World Cup finals debut. However, on the other side of the coin, they shipped almost 200 points and lost all four of their games.
Pool D
Samoa gave both Wales and South Africa a scare, leading 10-6 at half-time against the Welsh until Shane Williams scored a try 15 minutes from the end to turn the match around. And, although Samoa never held the lead against the Springboks, they finished the tournament on a high by reducing South Africa's 13-0 half-time advantage to 13-5 by the end - a missed conversion costing them a merited losing bonus point.
But, while Samoa gave their usual good account of themselves, this tournament did not feature a vintage Fiji team - far from it, in fact. After the expected opening victory over Namibia, the Fijians then went on to lose their other three matches with the 49-3 defeat to South Africa and 66-0 shutout against Wales particularly painful. Namibia came into the tournament as the lowest-ranked team - and it showed as they conceded 49 points to both Samoa and Fiji before shipping 87 without reply to South Africa and losing 81-7 in Wales' record World Cup win.
RUGBY WORLD CUP 2011: FIRST ROUND RESULTS/TABLES
POOL A
| TV | Date | Venue | |
| ITV1 | Fri 09 Sep | NEW ZEALAND 41-10 TONGA | Eden Park, Auckland |
| ITV1 | Sat 10 Sep | FRANCE 47-21 JAPAN | North Harbour, Auckland |
| ITV4 | Wed 14 Sep | TONGA 20-25 CANADA | Whangarei |
| ITV1 | Fri 16 Sep | NEW ZEALAND 83-7 JAPAN | Hamilton |
| ITV1 | Sun 18 Sep | FRANCE 46-19 CANADA | Napier |
| ITV4 | Wed 21 Sep | TONGA 31-18 JAPAN | Whangarei |
| ITV1 | Sat 24 Sep | NEW ZEALAND 37-17 FRANCE | Eden Park, Auckland |
| ITV4 | Tue 27 Sep | CANADA 23-23 JAPAN | Napier |
| ITV1 | Sat 1 Oct | FRANCE 14-19 TONGA | Wellington |
| ITV1 | Sun 2 Oct | NEW ZEALAND 79-15 CANADA | Wellington |
| Pool A Table | W | D | L | F | A | Tries | Pts |
| Q NEW ZEALAND | 4 | 0 | 0 | 240 | 49 | 36 | 20 |
| Q FRANCE | 2 | 0 | 2 | 124 | 96 | 15 | 11 |
| TONGA | 2 | 0 | 2 | 80 | 98 | 7 | 9 |
| CANADA | 1 | 1 | 2 | 82 | 168 | 9 | 6 |
| JAPAN | 0 | 1 | 3 | 69 | 184 | 8 | 2 |
POOL B
| TV | Date | Venue | |
| ITV1 | Sat 10 Sep | SCOTLAND 34-24 ROMANIA | Invercargill |
| ITV1 | Sat 10 Sep | ENGLAND 13-9 ARGENTINA | Dunedin |
| ITV1 | Wed 14 Sep | SCOTLAND 15-6 GEORGIA | Invercargill |
| ITV1 | Sat 17 Sep | ARGENTINA 43-8 ROMANIA | Invercargill |
| ITV1 | Sun 18 Sep | ENGLAND 41-10 GEORGIA | Dunedin |
| ITV1 | Sat 24 Sep | ENGLAND 67-3 ROMANIA | Dunedin |
| ITV1 | Sun 25 Sep | ARGENTINA 13-12 SCOTLAND | Wellington |
| ITV4 | Wed 28 Sep | GEORGIA 25-9 ROMANIA | Napier |
| ITV1 | Sat 1 Oct | ENGLAND 16-12 SCOTLAND | Eden Park, Auckland |
| ITV1 | Sun 2 Oct | ARGENTINA 25-7 GEORGIA | Palmerston North |
| Pool B Table | W | L | F | A | Tries | Pts |
| Q ENGLAND | 4 | 0 | 137 | 34 | 18 | 18 |
| Q ARGENTINA | 3 | 1 | 90 | 40 | 10 | 14 |
| SCOTLAND | 2 | 2 | 73 | 59 | 4 | 11 |
| GEORGIA | 1 | 3 | 48 | 90 | 3 | 4 |
| ROMANIA | 0 | 4 | 44 | 169 | 3 | 0 |
POOL C
| TV | Date | Venue | |
| ITV1 | Sun 11 Sep | AUSTRALIA 32-6 ITALY | North Harbour, Auckland |
| ITV1 | Sun 11 Sep | IRELAND 22-10 UNITED STATES | New Plymouth |
| ITV4 | Thu 15 Sep | RUSSIA 6-13 UNITED STATES | New Plymouth |
| ITV1 | Sat 17 Sep | AUSTRALIA 6-15 IRELAND | Eden Park, Auckland |
| ITV4 | Tue 20 Sep | ITALY 53-17 RUSSIA | Nelson |
| ITV1 | Fri 23 Sep | AUSTRALIA 67-5 UNITED STATES | Wellington |
| ITV1 | Sun 25 Sep | IRELAND 62-12 RUSSIA | Rotorua |
| ITV4 | Tue 27 Sep | ITALY 27-10 UNITED STATES | Nelson |
| ITV1 | Sat 1 Oct | AUSTRALIA 68-22 RUSSIA | Nelson |
| ITV1 | Sun 2 Oct | IRELAND 36-6 ITALY | Dunedin |
| Pool C Table | W | L | F | A | Tries | Pts |
| Q IRELAND | 4 | 0 | 135 | 34 | 15 | 17 |
| Q AUSTRALIA | 3 | 1 | 173 | 48 | 25 | 15 |
| ITALY | 2 | 2 | 92 | 95 | 13 | 10 |
| UNITED STATES | 1 | 3 | 38 | 122 | 4 | 4 |
| RUSSIA | 0 | 4 | 57 | 196 | 8 | 1 |
POOL D
| TV | Date | Venue | |
| ITV1 | Sat 10 Sep | FIJI 49-25 NAMIBIA | Rotorua |
| ITV1 | Sun 11 Sep | SOUTH AFRICA 17-16 WALES | Wellington |
| ITV1 | Wed 14 Sep | SAMOA 49-12 NAMIBIA | Rotorua |
| ITV1 | Sat 17 Sep | SOUTH AFRICA 49-3 FIJI | Wellington |
| ITV1 | Sun 18 Sep | WALES 17-10 SAMOA | Hamilton |
| ITV4 | Thu 22 Sep | SOUTH AFRICA 87-0 NAMIBIA | North Harbour, Auckland |
| ITV1 | Sun 25 Sep | FIJI 7-27 SAMOA | Eden Park, Auckland |
| ITV1 | Mon 26 Sep | WALES 81-7 NAMIBIA | New Plymouth |
| ITV4 | Fri 30 Sep | SOUTH AFRICA 13-5 SAMOA | North Harbour, Auckland |
| ITV1 | Sun 2 Oct | WALES 66-0 FIJI | Hamilton |
| Pool D Table | W | L | F | A | Tries | Pts |
| Q SOUTH AFRICA | 4 | 0 | 166 | 24 | 21 | 18 |
| Q WALES | 3 | 1 | 180 | 34 | 23 | 15 |
| SAMOA | 2 | 2 | 91 | 49 | 9 | 10 |
| FIJI | 1 | 3 | 59 | 167 | 7 | 5 |
| NAMIBIA | 0 | 4 | 44 | 266 | 5 | 0 |
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