Robinson under pressure as England lose again

England 18 Argentina 25:Substitute flyhalf Federico Todeschini scored 22 points as Argentina conquered Twickenham with a 25-18 victory over England today.

Tries by Paul Sackey and Iain Balshaw, to one by Todeschini, were not enough for England to prevent their seventh successive defeat, their worst run for more than 30 years, and their first home defeat by the Pumas.

Todeschini, who slotted three penalties in the first half after coming on in the 24th minute, took his tally to 16 with the conversion then added two more penalties.

Felipe Contepomi, who started at flyhalf but moved to centre when Todeschini came on for the injured Gonzalo Tiesi, scored Argentina's first three points with a penalty.

Flyhalf Charlie Hodgson had put England ahead after three minutes with a penalty but he, along with several team mates, had a wretched afternoon and was replaced early in the second half.

Scotland 48-6 Romania:Scotland opened their autumn Test series with a comfortable victory over a courageous but limited Romania side at Murrayfield.

Frank Hadden's side warmed up for the more exacting challenges posed by the Pacific Islanders and Australia by seeing off the visitors with plenty to spare.

Scotland next meet Romania in the World Cup in 10 months' time and, after this seven-try performance, Hadden will be confident of victory in that pool match next year.

Romania were the first opponents in Hadden's reign when he oversaw a 39-19 victory as interim coach in Bucharest last June and such has been the progress made since then that the visitors never looked like adding to the two wins they have enjoyed against Scotland, in 1991 and 1984.

That was despite Hadden fielding several new faces in his side with Glasgow's John Beattie earning his first cap at number eight in place of Simon Taylor - just back from injury - and Edinburgh's Rob Dewey making his debut in the centre alongside Marcus Di Rollo.

Edinburgh playmaker Phil Godman was also handed a first start at stand-off while Glasgow prop Euan Murray made his debut in the front row.

Wales 38-20 Pacific Islanders:Wales broke their run of six games without a win to see off the threat of the free-running Pacific Islanders with a 38-20 victory at the Millennium Stadium.
   
Wales flyhalf Ceri Sweeney enjoyed a personal haul of 18 points, including one of the five Welsh tries against a disjointed Islanders side whose backs gifted Wales two interception tries.
   
All the Welsh tries came from the backs with Mark Jones, James Hook, Kevin Morgan, Lee  Byrne and Sweeney all crossing, four of the scores coming in the first half as they  led 31-5 at the break.
   
The  Islanders are still without a win having lost all three of their inaugural 2004 tests, but showed plenty of enterprise scoring three tries by Justin Va'a, Seilala Mapasua and substitute wing Kameli Ratuvou.
   
This was a Wales second-string side, but showed the current strength in depth of the Welsh squad ahead of their remaining autumn internationals against Canada and New Zealand.

Italy 25-18 Australia:Australia gave an uneven performance to edge out Italy 25-18 at the Stadio Flaminio.
   
Mat Rogers, Guy Shepherdson and captain Stirling Mortlock scored tries for Australia, while Italy failed to get one. However, ill-discipline almost cost the visitors dearly - as it did in last weekend's 29-29 draw with Wales.
   
Flyhalf Ramiro Pez kicked five penalties in the first half to give Italy a 15-13 halftime lead. He grabbed another after the interval to keep up the pressure on the twice world champions.
   
It was only when Mortlock got the last of Australia's tries eight minutes from time that the visitors were able to breathe easily.
   
Australia's ragged display began after three minutes, when hooker Brendan Cannon was sin-binned for lashing out at Gonzalo Canale.
   
Pez missed the resulting penalty from a relatively easy position but three more Australian misdemeanours in the opening 15 minutes allowed the Argentine-born flyhalf to establish a 9-0 lead for the home side.
   
Australia, meanwhile, were struggling to find their rhythm as handling errors caused a series of attacks to break down close to Italy's line.
   
Italy continued to fight and got their reward on the stroke of halftime when Australia were penalised for collapsing a maul and Pez made it five penalties out of six to leave Italy 15-13 up at halftime.
   
Australia came out more aggressively at the restart, forcing a lineout five metres from Italy's line. Alessandro Zanni fumbled from the throw-in, and prop Shepherdson seized his chance, pouncing on the loose ball and diving over the line to re-establish the Wallabies' lead.
   
Another penalty by Pez kept Italy in contention but in the 72nd minute number eight Wycliff Palu came powering through from a deep position, smashed through a pair of desperate Italy tackles before setting up Mortlock to grab Australia's third try to seal the win.