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Australia vs England |
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---|---|---|
2017 Rugby League World Cup Final | ||
Australia | England | |
6 | SCORE | 0 |
1 | Tries | 0 |
1 | Conversions | 0 |
0 | Penalties | 0 |
0 | Field Goals | 0 |
Australia are the victors in the 2017 Rugby League World Cup, coming away from the final with a 6-0 win over England, and claiming their eleventh title.
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Final score
Australia 6
England 0
Australia will start as the heavy favourites in the Rugby League World Cup Final against England at Suncorp Stadium. Join The Roar for a live blog of the action from 8pm (AEDT).
The Kangaroos have swept all before them in this tournament so far, conceding only three tries in their five matches. Ironically, England scored the opening try of the World Cup against Australia in the fifth minute of their opening game, before going down 18-4.
Since then, the Australian defence has been a brick wall, and they’ve piled on the points in attack. The Kangaroos are coming off a 54-6 win over Fiji in last week’s semi-final, a match where winger Valentine Holmes scored an incredible six tries. That was on top of his five-try effort in the 46-0 quarter-final win against Samoa the week before.
Mal Meninga has named an unchanged line-up for the third straight week.
England had a late scare last week against the fast-finishing Tongans, before emerging as 20-18 winners. The Tongans scored three tries in the last six minutes and had another disallowed on the full-time hooter to almost snatch a fairytale win.
Sam Burgess will captain England after regular skipper Sean O’Loughlin has been ruled out with a quad injury. Exactly who will start in his place at this stage is unclear.
Wayne Bennett has also been forced to make one other change to England’s starting 13 for this week, after hooker Josh Hodgson suffered a serious knee injury last week. James Roby will take his spot at dummy half, with Chris Heighington likely to come onto the bench.
England haven’t ever won the World Cup as a standalone nation, though they have been involved in three winning Great Britain campaigns. The last was in 1972. Australia are the defending World Cup champions, having won the event ten times.
Prediction
Australia by 13.