The Kangaroos have beaten England 18-4 to get their Rugby League World Cup off to a winning start, but the home side was made to work hard at AAMI Park.
The English were under the pump from the start of the game, but they hit the lead against the run of play in the fifth minute, when Gareth Widdop fired a brilliant pass wide to the right and Jermaine McGillvary took the ball above his head and controlled it to touch down in the corner.
Widdop missed the conversion to leave it 4-0 England, but the home side answered in the 23rd minute, when a period of solid pressure for the Australians ended with Matt Gillett taking a pass from Cameron Smith and sidestepping the defence to score. Smith converted to make it 6-4.
The English defence was looking tired, and on the half hour the Kangaroos made their dominance pay, as Billy Slater went over in the corner. Australia led 10-4 at the break, but more importantly for England, Sam Burgess had limped off with a possible knee injury five minutes before half-time.
The English raised their game in the second stanza, and put serious pressure on the Australian defence with some solid attacking runs and cross-field kicks testing out the Kangaroos.
But they could not make their chances count, and they were punished late, giving away a penalty goal converted by Cameron Smith to put the game almost out of reach, before Josh Dugan scored an intercept try in the 79th minute to complete the scoring.
More to come.
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