The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Highlights: Australia knock England out of Four Nations

Australia reclaimed the Four Nations trophy from New Zealand. (AAP Image/Tony McDonough)
Editor
13th November, 2016
49
2804 Reads

Australia will face New Zealand in the Four Nations final next week after knocking England out of the tournament with a convincing 18-point win.

» Re-live all the action with our live blog

Five second-half tries blew the home nation out of the park to finish off the group stages and send the Kangaroos through to the final undefeated.

England needed a win or a draw to book their spot in the final, but lost their legs in the second 40 to let the Aussies run home with all the momentum.

The game started out well for England after staving off some early aggression from Australia to get the first points on the board thanks to a Gareth Widdop penalty goal.

Johnathan Thurston would hit back with two-points of his own, but England again took the front foot with the opening try of the contest, taking control of the opening half an hour.

Blake Ferguson would make the English pay for errors in their own half, crossing the line just before halftime against the run of play.

The Kangaroos took a slender lead into the break following a tense opening half with the game still in the balance.

Advertisement

It would all open up in the second though, with tired legs and poor defence opening the game right up at both ends.

There were seven tries between the two sides in the second half.

Greg Inglis was rewarded for a stellar game with a try just after the break, before setting up another through Matt Scott just ten minutes later to push away from the English and create a big lead.

A Cooper Cronk dummy and line break off the subsequent kickoff was finished off by Josh Dugan to cap off two tries in as many minutes and sink the English hopes.

Sam Burgess and David Klemmer got in a scuffle late in the contest after Matt Gillett scored inside the final ten minutes, with Burgess even landing a punch and opening up Klemmer’s melon.

Widdop and try-scoring machine Ryan Hall would find consolation four-pointers late in the game, but it just wasn’t enough and they could only watch as their tournament came to an end.

close