Kangaroos hold off England fightback
Glenn Jackson | November 1, 2009 - 6:26AM
England 16 Australia 26
Wigan: The saying goes that you're only as good as your last game but for the Australians there is a significant asterix. If they were only as good as their last half then they will be more disappointed than delighted with this morning's 26-16 win over England in Wigan.
The Kangaroos scored 26 points in the first 31 minutes, fuelling the prospect of a blackout against the white knights of England. But the home side's stirring second half fightback, in which much credit should go to them, saw the Kangaroos fail to score another point.
A strange occurrence given the ease in which Australia piled on the points in the first half.
The Kangaroos might have looked rusty against New Zealand a week earlier but they certainly blew the cobwebs out in the opening stages against England, in the process blowing away their opponents. Rustiness became ruthlessness as the Australian left-side attack did so much damage that English supporters booed their team when the halftime siren sounded.
The Australians did not make an error in the first 20 minutes, and by that stage led 16-0\. England had made their intentions clear when Adrian Morley, strong in the opening, hit Ben Hannant, all red and puffed cheeks, hard, but a jammed English defence had no answer when Darren Lockyer sent a long ball Greg Inglis's way. The Melbourne centre returning the favour by sending his five-eighth over for the first try.
When you find a good thing, stick to it, and so the Kangaroos kept going left, where they were finding most of the space. Slater scored his first try after 15 minutes, with Thurston and Lockyer again prominent, and just three minutes later second-rower Anthony Watmough found himself crashing through, with the England defence nervous about his speed and size and the guile of Lockyer and Thurston inside him. Watmough found Inglis, who gave Slater his second try within 18 minutes.
Watmough came up with Australia's first error after 20 minutes, but unfortunately for England they failed to capitalise on their first real opportunity in Kangaroo territory. In fact, Danny McGuire's ball put South Sydney's new signing Sam Burgess under undue pressure, and the player's first real impact on the game was to watch helplessly as Thurston's quick ball sent Inglis on another merry run.
While the spine of the Australian team could not take charge against the Kiwis last week, they dominated England. Thurston particularly was exceptional in the first half, but in Lockyer, Slater and Cameron Smith, the latter's kicking game pinning England deep into their territory, he had more than able deputies.
The funny thing about Australia's determination to go to the left side is that winger Brett Morris hardly touched the ball. They rarely needed to find him. But after 31 minutes, he took advantage of a rare touch to score to help his side to a 26-0 lead just a few ticks past the half-hour mark.
The whack had largely come out of the England game, although Burgess did manage to knock the stuffing out of Brett White. Referee Steve Ganson, whose officiating style resembles his haircut - military grade - and who had again been hard on the Australians, mystifyingly awarded a penalty to the Kangaroos. The English didn't need those decisions to go against them.
They needed something, and they got it. Halftime. The Australians came out in the second half slightly off the pace and the English lifted. Burgess had been busy trying to make his mark against future NRL opponents and he found a try against them not long after the break.
Suddenly English support found their voice and the hits and offloads from the players found their marks. Sheens had taken Smith off just before halftime, sending on Robbie Farah. The Kangaroos appeared to lose some stability around the ruck and Sheens brought his first-choice hooker back on as the English threatened to make more of a game of it.
It hardly mattered as the English kept coming. Ellis, who has already made the grade in NRL so needed no introducing to the Australians, scored, and not long after Thurston was sin-binned by Ganson for a professional foul, Morris slipped at the worst possible time and Lee Smith took full advantage, scoring in the corner to help his side back to within just 10 points of the Kangaroos.
AUSTRALIA 26 (B Slater 2 G Inglis D Lockyer B Morris tries J Thurston 3 goals) bt ENGLAND 16 (S Burgess G Ellis L Smith tries K Sinfield L Smith goals) at DW Stadium. Referee: Steve Ganson.
Source: The Sun-Herald
