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Australia have opened their Four Nations account with a dominant performance over Scotland this morning, running away 54-12 winners.
With plenty of fresh blood in the Kangaroos side, Mal Meninga’s men were keeping up with the clock in the first half and finished with ten tries for the game.
A resilient Scotland side fought hard but just couldn’t keep up with the best side in the world.
As Australia look ahead to New Zealand in the second round and Scotland move on to England, let’s have a look at some of the talking points from the series opener.
The international gap is far too big
Rugby League is a massive sport in Australia and has been for more than a century, the quality of the NRL and the competition is a big reason why the Kangaroos are one of the top team in the world.
The same cannot be said elsewhere unfortunately.
The gap between the top three sides in Australia, New Zealand and England back to the rest is just too big.
Scotland weren’t given any hope before the game and were brushed off during the match.
You have dominant wins and big scorelines at international level in any sport, but there’s just a bridge that anyone out of the top three can’t cross.
Most of the time these teams are a mix of local players and NRL guys who didn’t make the Australian side and have been offered a gig.
If the game wants to continue to grow and spread its wings on an international stage, this gap needs to close.
Moylan and Maloney fire on debut
Meninga was happy to use this game as a testing ground for a host of new players in the green and gold jersey, and they didn’t disappoint.
Matt Moylan’s role as a playmaking fullback coming in a lot at first and second receiver is definitely something worth persisting with into the future.
He was all over the park and racked up no fewer than four try assists, generally causing havoc for the Scottish defence on the right edge with Penrith team mate Josh Mansour.
Similarly, Maloney’s passing game was brilliant, especially on the double pump short ball that got him five line break assists.
It’ll be difficult to retain a spot with Thurston lurking, but he put his best foot forward on game day and that’s all you can ask. His goal kicking left a little to be desired though.
The second half showed some cracks
Australia were six tries and 30 points up just over half an hour into the game in what was a near faultless performance from the starting XIII.
At one point they were just scoring from the first set off each kickoff.
It was the last five minutes of the opening half that Scotland began to fight back though and put some pressure on the Kangaroos.
While Scotland still let in another four tries in the second half, one was right after the break and the other three were in the final 14 minutes. For the most part, Australia really struggled in the second stanza.
A lot of handling errors were costing them close to the line and they just couldn’t get themselves together when the bench came on.
It might have been a case of slowing down while ahead, getting comfortable or maybe the bench needs to be changed up, but it’s not a good sign heading into the New Zealand game.
Scotland has some talent
Despite the scoreline and expectations about minnow sides in Rugby League, Scotland have some really top class players in their side that are worth keeping an eye on through the tournament.
Hooker Liam Hood was a standout for the losing side, as was five-eighth Danny Brough who is a veteran in the Super League.
Brough is a nugget of a man, built like a brick outhouse, runs like a truck and has the ball skills of a Cronk or Thurston.
Second Rower Danny Addy racked up a game high 40 tackles as one of the best big men on the park across both sides.
Ben Kavanagh scored one of Scotland’s two tries and piled on 32 tackles for the game, despite an injury he was one of the best for Bradford this year.
Scotland have plenty of talent there’s no doubt about that.
Did Australia show enough to be confident against New Zealand?
This goes back to the point on Australia’s second half.
The sloppy errors and lazy handling looked bad and it was a mark on a generally strong performance from the Roos.
They had the safety net of a big lead and a weaker opposition than usual, but if they put up that kind of performance in their next game, then they may be staring at the lights against New Zealand.
They scored a lot of tries and didn’t let a lot in, but was it enough to be confident against England or New Zealand?
They won’t be allowed to let off they way they did against Scotland.
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