England's inglorious World Cup continued to unravel after Andy Farrell and Graham Rowntree received changing-room bans for Saturday's final group match against Uruguay.
The Rugby Football Union has denied making contact with former South African and Italian national coach Nick Mallett to gauge his interest as a potential successor to Stuart Lancaster.
Another sensational win for Japan, England dumped out of their own Rugby World Cup and both Australia and South Africa finding form at the perfect time.
England are refusing to dwell on revelations of a training-ground fracas between Danny Cipriani and Mike Catt as their doomed World Cup draws to a close.
Match citing commissioner Peter Larter is satisfied that "no biting incident occurred" during the course of Wednesday's World Cup pool game between South Africa and the United States, World Rugby have confirmed.
Scotland's worst injury fears failed to materialise after Finn Russell, John Hardie, Ross Ford and Matt Scott were all passed fit for their do-or-die clash with Samoa.
Bryan Habana equalled Jonah Lomu's World Cup try-scoring record as he led South Africa into the quarter-finals with a crushing victory over the United States at the Olympic Stadium.
Uruguay head coach Pablo Lemoine vowed to hunt further tries against eliminated World Cup hosts England in Manchester on Saturday after his side's first scores in 12 years.
That Michael Hooper will miss the Wales game after admitting his shoulder charge offence on England’s Mike Brown could be a headline to concern Australian rugby fans.