The Rugby League World Cup gets underway with a match likely to decide top spot in Pool A, as Australia take on England in Melbourne. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 8pm (AEDT).
With France and Lebanon the other two sides in their group, one of these sides should go through undefeated, the other finishing second with a loss tonight.
Taking first provides the advantage of not having to face the top team in Pool B – who are likely to be New Zealand – until the final.
That said, Group B is the proverbial group of death, with Tonga, Samoa and Scotland also in there, so a win in this game is no ticket to an easy path through the tournament.
The Kangaroos, as always, come into the tournament heavy favourites, but Darius Boyd, Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott are all missing from their best 17.
However, that opens the door for Michael Morgan – who was the player of the NRL finals series, taking the North Queensland Cowboys to the big dance – to play in the halves, while Billy Slater returns at fullback. Dane Gagai and Valentine Holmes take the wing positions, with New South Wales combo Aaron Woods and David Klemmer starting up front.
Other exciting additions include lock Jake Trbojevic and the usual suspects of Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith, giving us one last chance to see the Storm’s big three in action.
Sean O’Loughlin forms as the tourists’ key man. The Wigan Warriors lock, who is a veteran of 28 Tests for both Great Britain and England, might be reaching the end of his career, but with 400 Super League matches he is showing no signs of slowing down.
He leads a dangerous forward pack, chock-a-block of power runners. Sam Burgess, James Graham, Elliott Whitehead, and Josh Hodgson – who will add plenty of spark at dummy half – headline the NRL players, with Warrington prop Chris Hill adding size.
While the English forwards will be able to stay in the match physically, the problem will be scoring points and edge defence.
Gareth Widdop was one of the NRL’s form players in 2017, but his combination with Luke Gale is an unknown, and if Leeds winger Ryan Hall doesn’t score a bag, it’s difficult to see where England’s points come from.
Prediction
Even without Thurston, Australia simply have too many stars across the park for Wayne Bennett’s men.
Australia by 10.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of the Rugby League World Cup’s opening match from 8pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to add a comment below.
Emcie
Roar Guru
This is the first game since mad monday and the first match of a long WC campaign featuring a number of guys who've never played together in diferent positions. You can't compare it to a mid season SOO series of which the first game is historicaly pretty dour anyway
Peter Evans
Roar Rookie
Agree. Terrible Aus performance. Stats all in their favor yet so underwhelming and lacking any adventure or ideas out of the 'dead boring' bag of tricks.
Dean
Guest
And? He's not used for penalties in general play. Played under International rules not NRL rules. Quite different.
Dean
Guest
False news.
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
Klemmer and Slater carried Australia. They were both nightmares for England. Everything good about Australia seemed to come off the backs of those two. Just superb. England were not shamed at all but they need to get Kallum Watkins invloved more. One on one he is lethal. Attacking the edge I wonder how it would go if Watkins was running off of Widdop instead of Lomax? Luke Gale was not out of place and once England wrestled some momentum back their way he started probing a bit more with his kicks inside the twenty. He must be ruing the absence of Hardaker and Tomkins. All in all it was a very good Test match. Some cobwebs, of course, but both teams will improve as the tournament progresses.
Cynical Play
Guest
What a limp flaccid underwhelming fiasco. An underdone Australian team meets an under skilled English team and the hype is quickly forgotten as skills and standards are mediocre and It ranked as boring a match on par with any back-end NRL late season dead rubber. How can ARL get it so wrong. It looked like the players wanted to stay in holiday mode. Compared to SOO it was pathetic.
Fox Lvy
Guest
you want me to send you the tapes? just watch NBA 2morw..very exciting!
Fox Lvy
Guest
it is not the comment that is silly..it is you! l say what l what to say..it is a free world mate!
Fox Lvy
Guest
I like your name.Sad! you must be really sad person!
Matt P
Roar Rookie
I know why we need neutral refs, but I love how everyone talks about them like there's zero possibility of a ref being biased just because they're not from either of the countries. On the other hand, it's readily observable that some people seem to really go against their own country. Australia, for example, has lots of people who love it when we lose. Seems like they'd be perfect.
Sad
Guest
@Fox Lvy you show your insecurities by first calling it Rugby. But glad you watched the game. Which i would never do for AFL.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Thought Widdop was really good in the second half Riley. England will need Sammy B in the side if they are going to win this thing. No worries Riley. Thanks for following.
Scott Pryde
Expert
No worries Rene. Can't wait. Tonga in particular on Sunday arvo.
Scott Pryde
Expert
That's the great thing about the World Cup - by the time you're getting those symptoms again, pre-season will be starting!
Damo
Guest
Do you not understand the definition of neutral? That obviously wouldn't be neutral would it?
Emcie
Roar Guru
Losing Burgess would have really hurt, but they still aimed up. Good signs
Renegade
Roar Guru
Thanks for the call Scotty... a genuine test match to kick start the World Cup! The weekend is planned, looking forward to see how the rest of the sides stack up in their opening fixtures!
Emcie
Roar Guru
the failing Rugby League WC, so sad
Emcie
Roar Guru
just as i was getting over footy withdrawals too ;)
Riley Pettigrew
Roar Guru
England can take a lot of positives from this game. Gale and Widdop looked good when they got the chance, Graham poured his heart out. Once Walmsley gets back the forward pack should lift. Hopefully Burgess isn't out too long. If the Poms can get Watkins involved, they could be a force to be reckoned with. What a game of rugby league! As for Australia, seriously good performance from Slater and Klemmer. They'll warm up as the tournament goes on. I'm a bit concerned about Cronk though, I understand he was getting hit from all angles but he looked very off. Poor communication at times. Thanks for the call Scotty!