Wales recovered from a slow start to their opening Rugby World Cup fixture against Uruguay to take a 28-9 lead into half time at the Millennium Stadium.

The Southern Hemisphere minnows, competing in this showpiece competition for the first time since 2003, made a dream start to the contest by successfully kicking over two pens inside the opening 10 minutes.

Felipe Berchesi held his nerve to punish a Wales side lacking any discipline and showing some early tournament jitters, leaving the weakened home outfit with some work to do.

Buoyed by a now-boisterous backing in South Wales, the Red Dragons rallied and were finally rewarded when the returning Samson Lee dived over at the end of a strong maul, before Rhys Priestland - on kicking duties this afternoon - added the extras.

Allen touched down for a second soon after, giving Wales just a little breathing space in the first-ever Test meeting between the teams, and once more Priestland made no mistake from the follow-up.

Uruguay showed yet again that they should not be completely written off in Pool A, however, adding three more points via the boot of Berchesi - who at the same time equalled the best individual points record by a Teros player at the World Cup - to close the gap once more.

Wales still had time to make things slightly more comfortable heading into the break, though, thanks to a second try of the clash from Allen.

The Cardiff Blues centre, without an international score to his name prior to today, was picked out by Priestland at the end of a sweeping move to push his side closer to that previous bonus-point triumph with 30 minutes on the clock.

There was still more joy to come for Allen, as with two minutes of overtime played he successfully charged through the Uruguay backline to edge Warren Gatland's men further ahead and complete an impressive personal hat-trick of tries.