A second-string Australia ran in 11 tries to hammer Uruguay 65-3 at Villa Park yesterday and ease to the top of Rugby World Cup Pool A ahead of their crunch encounters with England and Wales.

The twice former champions, who opened their campaign with a 25-13 victory over Fiji on Wednesday, made hay in the bright Birmingham sunshine to score five tries before half-time and secure the bonus point.

Two tries in five minutes at the start of the second half from winger Drew Mitchell, his 11th and 12th at World Cups, gave the Australians the points differential they needed to ease ahead of Wales, conquerors of England the previous evening.

“I thought it was a pretty rugged game,” Australia coach Michael Cheika said.

“I think we’ve still got a lot of improvement, we probably left too many opportunities behind and we need to try and improve every day to get to the standard we want to be at.”

Scotland managed to turn around a first-half deficit to secure a bonus-point 39-16 victory against a physical United States at Elland Road yesterday and return to the top of Pool B.

The Scots were left to rue missed kicks and errant passes as they trailed 13-6 at the break, but they struck back with five tries to earn the extra points that could prove so crucial in a group that also contains South Africa, Japan and Samoa.

The United States scored through prop Titi Lamositele in the first half but were eclipsed by tries from Scotland wingers Tim Visser and Sean Maitland, prop Willem Nel and replacements Matt Scott and Duncan Weir.

Scotland’s key playmaker Finn Russell limped off, a worrying sign ahead of their clash against South Africa in Newcastle next Saturday.

Other result: Pool D – Ireland vs Romania 44-10.

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