All Blacks Beat Scotland 43-21 as Springboks Hit Italy for 66 and France Rout Fiji in the Nations Championship

Four Tests, four wins for the sides expected to win them, though only one of the four felt comfortable for the winners until the second half. The All Blacks beat Scotland 43-21 at Murrayfield on Saturday, in a Nations Championship round that also saw South Africa score 66 in Turin, France lose their fly-half in Lyon and Wales hold on in Cardiff.

Everything below is as it stood on Saturday night. England and Australia play on Sunday.

How did the All Blacks beat Scotland 43-21?

Scotland led at times and trailed only 24-21 at half-time, with hooker Ewan Ashman scoring a first-half hat-trick, per FloRugby. After the break the All Blacks turned the game on the scrum and with fresh legs: they scored seven tries in all, Beauden Barrett twice, and Scotland did not score again. The New Zealand Herald said the visitors were far from perfect, missing 18 first-half tackles and playing parts of the game short-handed.

We previewed the teams on Friday. The result keeps New Zealand level with South Africa on 20 points in the southern table and extends an unbeaten run against Scotland that the NZ Herald puts at 121 years. Scotland next face Australia at Murrayfield on 15 November.

What happened in Italy v South Africa?

The Springboks made a lot of noise in Turin. They won 66-7 with nine tries, all converted, and led 45-0 at the break, Yahoo Sports reported. Hooker Malcolm Marx scored twice and Italy's only reply was a try from Federico Ruzza. The win made it four from four for South Africa, who are unbeaten with New Zealand.

How did France beat Fiji 54-17?

France were ahead 26-3 at half-time and finished with eight tries to Fiji's two, both in the final quarter, according to the AP report. A penalty try came after Fiji's Mesake Vocevoce was sin-binned. The cost came in the 33rd minute, when fly-half Romain Ntamack left with an apparent shoulder injury, and with Matthieu Jalibert, Antoine Hastoy and Thomas Ramos already injured, scrum-half Maxime Lucu covered at 10.