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Phil Egan
Phil Egan

10:14 25 Sep 2019



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Uruguay caused the first shock of this year's Rugby World Cup, defeating Fiji 30-27 in Pool D.

It is only a third ever World Cup win for the South Americans, who are appearing at their fourth tournament.

Fiji made 12 changes from the defeat to Australia last Saturday and the Pacific Islanders got off to a good start when hooker Mesulame Dolokoto touched down for the first try of the game after eight minutes.

However, Uruguay replied with a try from Santiago Arata, which was converted by Felipe Berchesi to give underdogs a 7-5 lead after 15 minutes.

Fiji were back in front three minutes later through an Eroni Mawi try and Josh Matavesi added the extras to make it 12-7.

Uruguay had the perfect response with tries from Manuel Diana and Juan Manuel Cat. Berchesi converted both tries to give them a 24-12 lead at half time.

A Berchesi penalty took their lead to 27-17 with 20 minutes to play after a try from Api Ratuniyarawa for Fiji.

Nikola Matawalu scored two tries in the last 15 minutes, the second of which came with the last play of the game.

By that stage, Berchesi had taken Uruguay to the 30-point mark and ultimately Fiji paid the price for a lack of accuracy from the tee.

Uruguay's previous World Cup victories came against Spain in 1999 and Georgia in 2003.

They failed to win a pool game in England in 2015, and suffered a 47-15 defeat to Fiji.

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