Australia A 42 Japan 21

Australia A ran in six tries to claim a bonus point in their cup opener against Japan in Fukuoka yesterday.

Brumbies lock Peter Kimlin scored a double, and tries to Van Humphries, Mark Gerrard, Morgan Turinui and Sam Norton-Knight capped off the victory for coach Phil Mooney's team.

Japan opened the scoring with an early drop goal but the lead lasted only until the 15th minute when Norton-Knight broke through in midfield and found Turinui on his outside to score. Gerrard converted for a 7-3 lead.

Australia extended their lead with a great team try that began with a diving short pass from Timana Tahu to Turinui who found Gerrard unmarked on the wing to score.

Australia led 35-3 at half-time, but were reduced to 13 men early in the second half after the sin-binning of Guy Shepherdson and Julian Salvi.

The loss of two players and travel fatigue showed on the Australian forwards who were unable to prevent replacement Tomoaki Taniguchi scoring off a driving maul in 61st minute.

Taniguchi then made it two tries in two minutes to make the score 35-21 with 15 minutes remaining.

Australia A play Samoa in Apia on Sunday.

¡ Rosario: Argentina, who finished third at last year's World Cup, defeated Scotland 21-15 at home on Saturday in the first of two internationals.

Scotland fullback Chris Paterson kicked all of his team's points.

Pumas hooker Alvaro Tejeda scored a try in the 21st minute to give Argentina a 10-9 half-time lead. Paterson kicked two penalties to restore the Scots' lead before Federico Todeschini replied with two for the Pumas and centre Gonzalo Tiesi ran in their second try.