Wallabies Trounce England

With the wounds of the heart breaking 2003 World Cup loss still showing Australia have gained some revenge on England with a comprehensive 34-3 victory in the opening test of the two-match Cook Cup series tonight at Telstra Stadium in Sydney.

The new look Australian outfit had a rather slow start to the match with poor ball security marring their performance, but the effort in the second half was near faultless as the Wallabies ran in three tries to help them record the third biggest win over England.

The victory was made that much sweeter as captain George Gregan celebrated his 119th test cap, a number that sees him move equal with the record set by former English prop Jason Leonard, but after the match all he wanted to talk about was the form of the team.

“It was a super effort,” said Gregan.

“A new squad with a lot of new faces and they did outstandingly well tonight.”

Australian coach John Connolly was also pleased after the match, as his Wallabies coaching career began with a win.

“It wasn’t a great effort, but we won the game so we are happy with that,” said Connolly.

After losing eight of their last nine test matches Australia looked to get their 2006 campaign off to an encouraging start and centre Stirling Mortlock had the chance to give the Wallabies an early lead, but he pushed his penalty goal attempt just to the left of the posts in the third minute.

The slippery conditions made life difficult for both sides, but it was England who seemed to be more at ease with greasy pitch in the opening quarter of an hour as they made some lightning counter attacks that had the Wallabies defence on their toes.

After the getting through the early exchanges unscathed Australia started to settle into the contest and although poor handling continued to plague them they were able to open the scoring through a Mortlock penalty goal after England were penalised for not releasing the ball in the 18th minute.

England missed a glorious chance to get on the scoreboard when winger Tom Varndell found some open spaces down the left hand flank in the 25th minute, but his pass to the outside men was dreadful and saw the promising movement come to an end.

Mortlock punished England’s wastefulness by kicking his second penalty goal of the night in the 27th minute to extend the Wallabies lead to six points, but two minutes later it looked that the visitors had hit the lead when fullback Iain Balshaw was first to a clever grubber kick however a superb tackle from Gregan held the Englishman up over the line to preserve the Wallabies advantage.

England missed another great chance to cut into the Australian’s lead when they received a penalty slightly to the left of the posts, but fly half Olly Barkley somehow pulled his shot to the left from only 20 metres out to leave the score line at 6-0.

The Wallabies had an outstanding chance to score the first try of the match in the shadows of half time when winger Mark Gerrard made a bust down the right hand touch line, but his pass inside was dropped by centre Mat Rogers.

Australia was still able to extend their advantage just before the main break though with Mortlock knocking over his third penalty goal of the night (9-0).

After being held scoreless in the first half it only took four minutes of the second stanza for England to register their first points of the game with Barkley atoning for his earlier penalty goal miss to bring the visitors within six points at 9-3.

That was quickly cancelled out by yet another Mortlock penalty goal soon after and then in the 54th minute the Wallabies broke the game open when full back Chris Latham sliced through the English defence to score between the posts and give the home side a comfortable 16 point buffer (19-3).

Australia pushed their lead out to 19 points in the 68th minute with another Mortlock penalty goal and then five minutes later they had the crowd on their feet when replacement back Clyde Rathbone made a long range break that ended with Gerrard diving over for the try next to the right hand upright after he had toed Rathbone’s loose pass into the in goal area.

With the win assured the Wallabies really started to throw the ball around and it resulted in their third try of the night when rugged flanker Phil Waugh found debutant Rod Blake for the first try of his international career.

Australia will look to build on this win next Saturday night when they take on England in the second and final Cook Cup test at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne.

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