SYDNEY, 19 October 2003 — England lived up to their tournament favorites billing with an impressive 25-6 defeat of South Africa in their Pool C match in Perth yesterday while earlier Australia and France maintained their perfect start to the World Cup.

Jonny Wilkinson gave England an early lead with a penalty after three minutes in what was a fast and furious start to the biggest match of the World Cup so far.

With Joost van der Westhuizen kicking away a lot of early South African possession the Springboks took time to settle and nearly went further behind but for a try saving tackle by Joe van Niekerk on center Mike Tindall.

South Africa slowly began to find their feet and outhalf Louis Koen leveled matters with a penalty from the right touchline on 18 minutes. Koen missed a chance to put the Springboks in front a minute later but his penalty fell short while Wilkinson made it two from two with the boot in the 29th minute to give England a 6-3 lead.

Koen then missed three penalties in a row before finally making it 6-6 from in front of the posts on the stroke of half-time after England were adjudged to be offside.

Wilkinson moved England into a 12-6 lead with two early second-half penalties and Clive Woodward’s side moved further clear in the 63rd minute when Lewis Moody blocked a Coen clearance to put Will Greenwood through to score.

Wilkinson converted to make it 19-6 and three minutes later made it 22-6 with a drop goal. Another long distance drop goal by Wilkinson on 75 minutes made it 25-6.

In Pool A, hosts Australia recorded the fastest try in World Cup history on their way to the biggest victory of the tournament so far, a 90-8 demolition of Romania.

Elton Flatley dived over the line after 18 seconds to beat the 66 seconds that halfback Joost Van Der Westhuizen took to score for South Africa against Uruguay last week.

Mat Rogers scored three more while Matt Burke and Stephen Larkham each went over twice in a 13-try rout.

France retained their unbeaten record in Pool B but were given a slight scare by Japan before eventually running out 51-29 winners in Townsville, scoring six tries in the process.

Japan took an early lead through a Toru Kurihara penalty on four minutes but the French replied almost immediately as outhalf Frederic Michalak broke through to score the first try of the game. Aurelien Rougerie was next to cross the Japanese line, which Michalak converted to leave France leading 14-3 after only ten minutes.

However, the floodgates failed to open with Japan restricting France to penalties in the rest of the half and even scoring a try themselves through George Konia to trail 20-16 at the break.