Rugby World Cup 2015: Winners and Losers from Wednesday's Games

The Rugby World Cup resumed with the second tranche of pool matches that saw Scotland, Australia and Romania make their tournament bows.

Kingsholm in Gloucester, England, was the scene for Japan's attempts to register another seismic sporting shock against the Scots, but Vern Cotter's side were too strong for the Blossoms, as Australia proved for Fiji, although their victory came without the bonus point England secured against the Pacific Islanders.

In the evening kick-off, France overpowered the Oaks of Romania to make it two wins from two and maintain course for a decisive clash with Ireland in the last round of pool play.

The storylines on Matchday 4 did not all come from the field of play, however, with bad news for Argentina.

Read on for the winners and losers from a busy day of World Cup action.

Winner: Scots Weather Blossom Onslaught

Scotland succeeded where South Africa failed with a comfortable win over the game Japanese.

Vern Cotter's men soaked up sustained periods of pressure from the Asian champions but pulled clear in the second half with five tries.

It threatened to be a second major shock win for Eddie Jones' men, who scored the game's first try through their well-oiled rolling maul and applied the screws to the Scottish defence with long periods of possession.

But Scotland were able to punish a catalogue of Japanese indiscretions through penalties to keep themselves clear of the underdogs and, despite a slender lead at the break, never surrendered their advantage.

The second half saw further raids on the Scots line, but the energy soon drained from captain Michael Leitch's men and Scotland started to pick them off.

What looked at times to have the makings of another upset for the ages became a 45-10 romp for a clinical Scottish side, who can now refocus on a clash with the USA on Sunday.

Loser: Minnows' Schedules Sap the Spirit

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Japan and Fiji both had short turnaround times between their first and second fixtures, and those truncated rest periods looked telling in Wednesday's contests.

Both sides were facing their second tier one nation in quick succession, and both opponents were enjoying their first run-out of the tournament.

That placed demands on the Fijian and Japanese players that proved too much for them to absorb.

Japan, in particular, looked out on their feet after the 50-minute mark, especially having lost influential No. 8 Amanaki Mafi to injury.

The injustice of the schedules was not lost on the Rugby Paper's Brendan Gallagher, who tweeted: "Scotland v impressive but Japan out on their feet from 50 mins onwards which was tough on them. There has 2b a fairer way 2 schedule matches."

And former Irish international Paul Wallace agreed, pointing out in a tweet that it ought to be those who can cope to have to deal with less time between fixtures: "Should be top tier teams with stronger squads that have shorter match interludes.Give the develop/smaller nations a chance."

Winner: Pocock/Hooper Axis Looks Promising for Wallabies

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Australia coach Michael Cheika explained before his side's first game that he couldn't countenance dropping either Michael Hooper or David Pocock from his first-choice back row.

And that decision was shown to be a shrewd one in the Wallabies' 28-13 win over Fiji.

Pocock was on the end of two driving mauls to dot down for a brace of tries, and the pair finished as the top two tacklers in the match, per rugbyworldcup.com (Hooper 22, Pocock 16).

The fear for England will be that they do not possess back-row players with the skiil set to cancel out the benefits this No. 7 double act brings the Australians, with Pocock in the role of unorthodox No. 8.

Assessing the merits of the Wallabies' victory, the Daily Mail's Joe Ridge warned: "The positional play and tactical awareness of the world class Wallaby pair is second to only Richie McCaw, so England must not blindly pile into every ruck without seeing the bigger picture, as Chris Robshaw and Tom Wood are occasionally guilty of."

Loser: Mariano Galarza

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Away from the action on the field on Wednesday, Argentina suffered the loss of lock Mariano Galarza for the rest of the tournament.

The 28-year-old has been handed a nine-week ban for "acts contrary to good sportsmanship" after he was found to have made contact with the eye area of New Zealand's Brodie Retallick, per the BBC.

The Gloucester man can appeal the decision, but if unsuccessful, he will not play again until late in November.

This GIF shows the moment that is supposed to be the source of the decision that has ended the forward's involvement in this World Cup.

Winner: Sofiane Guitoune

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After a string of injuries and a none-too-impressive performance against England during the warm-ups, Sofiane Guitoune had the answer to his critics on Wednesday night.

The Bordeaux wing bagged two well-taken tries in the 38-11 victory against Romania and almost fashioned a hat-trick for himself with a neat chip ahead that he couldn't quite ground before running out of space.

Had he had the depth of in-goal area to play with at Twickenham rather than the more shallow confines of the end zone at the Olympic Stadium, he might have scored.

With Yoann Huget out of the tournament after tearing knee ligaments, Guitoune has the chance to make the No. 14 jersey his own for the rest of France's World Cup.

He staked a decent claim against Romania.