Rugby World Cup 2015: Winners and Losers from Wednesday's Two Games
As we creep towards the denouement of the Rugby World Cup 2015 pool stages, Wednesday's schedule saw South Africa flex some muscle and Georgia do it the hard way against plucky Namibia.
The Springboks slaughtered the USA 62-0 in London while the Georgians got their second win of the tournament down in Exeter, England.
Their 17-16 victory over Namibia was a rare old scrap at Sandy Park that almost ended with a first historic win for Phil Davies' side.
That fairytale will have to wait for another day and another World Cup, unless they can do the unthinkable against Argentina in their final pool game.
Here are the winners and losers from Wednesday.
Winner: Bryan Habana Equals Lomu's Record
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A hat-trick inside 20 second-half minutes brought Bryan Habana level with Jonah Lomu on 15 World Cup tries.
The Springbok wing was on song as South Africa cut loose against a much-changed USA side, thumping them 62-0 at the Olympic Stadium.
In a place built to showcase the fastest man on earth back in 2012, it was appropriate that one of rugby's greatest speed merchants chose it as the venue to make his own piece of history.
Loser: USA Take Calculated Risk
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The Eagles made 12 changes for their fixture against South Africa to ensure their front-line troops are fresh to face Japan on Sunday.
Given the rigours of facing arguably the world's most physical side and having to run out again four days later, you can hardly blame the Americans for essentially giving up on this one in order to focus on what they would have seen as a much more even-handed contest against the Brave Blossoms.
But it doesn't look like Sunday's clash will pan out that way. Japan already have two wins in the bag and have looked a far better outfit than Mike Tolkin's men.
The Eagles are heading for the wooden spoon in Pool B.
Winner: Boks Back from Bad Start
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South Africa's nightmare start to this tournament already seems a distant memory.
After a shock loss to Japan, Heyneke Meyer's men have set about their task impressively, beating Samoa, Scotland and now the USA handsomely to take back control of a pool that threatened to slip from their grasp.
They are now through as winners and get to put their feet up and watch Wales and Australia battle it out to try to avoid them in the next round.
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Loser: Namibia's Wait Goes on
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For a moment, it looked like Namibia might snatch their first-ever World Cup win.
A 6-0 half-time lead put them in a strong position against Georgia, but they were unable to keep plugging holes in the dam after the break.
Georgia had been banging on the door for much of the first half, but they had not been able to turn their pressure into points until Lasha Malaguradze's try got them going.
Namibia came back at the death with a converted try to make it a one-point ball game, but they ran out of time to forge another opportunity.
The wait for that elusive victory goes on.
Winner: Georgia Book Their Passage to Japan
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They are going home, knocked out at the pool stage, but it is a case of mission accomplished for Georgian rugby.
Their 17-16 win over Namibia, allied to victory over Tonga on the first weekend, was enough to see them finish third in the pool (barring a freak win for Tonga over New Zealand).
And that means qualification for Japan in 2019.
No arduous, long-winded qualifying campaign, just four years of preparation for the next tournament and ample opportunities to build on the solid foundations this side clearly has in place.
More fixtures against the big boys in Europe would help immeasurably.
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