France 19 - 12 Ireland

FRANCE outmuscled an understrength Ireland 19-12 in their World Cup warm-up match last night but the hosts were forced to take off injured centre Maxime Mermoz with a knee injury in the first half.

The only try of the game had come ten minutes earlier when Vincent Clerc touched down.

Dimitri Yachvili, given a run out in place of Morgan Parra at scrum-half, kicked the rest of France's points in Bordeaux with a conversion and four penalties. Ronan O'Gara slotted over four penalties for Ireland, who missed the bite of rested captain Brian O'Driscoll. .

• Italy were forced to come from 17-14 behind at half-time to beat Japan 31-24 in Cesena last night.

Italy's tries came from Matteo Pratichetti, Edoardo Gori, Leonardo Ghiraldini and Andrea Lo Cicero, with Riccardo Bocchino slotting three conversions and Luciano Orquera kicking a penalty and a conversion. Tries by Takeshi Usuzuki, Koji Taira, and a penalty try for Japan were added to by three conversions and a penalty from the boot of James Arlidge.