Wallaroos open World Cup with bonus-point win over Wales
The Wallaroos have taken the first step in their bid to unite both the Sevens and Women’s Rugby World Cups with a 26-12 victory over Wales in their opening pool clash at Surrey Sports Park in Guilford, England on Friday (Saturday AEST).
Winger Nicole Beck flew down the sideline to score the first of four Wallaroos tries in just the sixth minute of the match and the skilful 22-year-old finished with a game-high 11 points after converting all but one of Australia’s five pointers.
Centre Sharni Williams crashed over in the 18th minute before Cobie-Jane Morgan finished off a try set up by fullback Tricia Brown to send Australia to the break with a commanding 21-0 lead and with plenty of star power still on the bench.
Coach John Manenti began to inject fresh legs into the physical match after halftime, with Tobie McGann replacing Tui Ormsby at flyhalf, after the No.10 had elected to play on after an early head clash.
Wales were awarded a penalty try in the 44th minute for repeat infringements at the breakdown and Australia were reduced to 13 players early in the second stanza with both halfback Iliseva Batbasaga and prop Caroline Vakalahi sent to the bin within two minutes of each other.
The Welsh, however, were unable to profit from Australia’s ill discipline and didn’t find the chalk until Lowri Harries touched down the in 70th minute the bridge the gap to 21-12.
The Wallaroos had the last say when Brown, who was named player of the match, sealed Australia’s bonus-point victory with a try in the 79th minute.
Manenti said he was delighted with his team’s first-up performance.
“We came out of the box quite well and had a big breeze behind us in the first half and scored some nice tries which was great,” Manenti said.
“At one stage in the second half we had two girls in the bin literally within a minute of each other and Wales weren’t able to score, so it was a gutsy defensive effort."
Brown said the Wallaroos would be looking to produce an ever better performance against defending champions, the New Zealand Black Ferns on Tuesday.
“We could not have asked for anything more, we knew the Welsh were going to come out and be physical and tough,” Brown said.
“We’ve got to win every game to give ourselves the chance of winning the World Cup and we did that today. It’s a great way to start.”
After tacking the Black Ferns on Tuesday, the Wallaroos will wrap up their pool matches against South Africa on 28 August.
All of Australia’s pool matches can be seen on Fox Sports 2 at 7am the following day and are streamed live on www.rwcwomens.com .
Australia 26 (Nicole Beck, Sharni Williams, Cobie-Jane Morgan, Tricia Brown tries; Beck 3 cons) beat Wales 12 (penalty try, Lowri Harries try; Non Evans con) in an IRB Women’s World Cup pool match at Surrey Sports Park, Guilford.
ARU
Highlights: http://www.rwcwomens.com/video/index.html
Also - you can view the full match replays 24 hours after they have been played from links on the same page. [Edit - this is avilable now by the looks of it]
