The Wallaroos had a player sent off as they fell 42-7 in their WXV1 match against world No.1 England in Wellington.
The Aussies scored one try to the English team’s six but they were improved in the second half and showed grit after the 58th-minute dismissal of lock Annabelle Codey.
She was sent off for a second yellow after high contact on England No.9 Ella Wyrwas, having been involved in a similar incident on Red Roses captain Marlie Packer in the first half.
Ashley Marsters scored Australia’s only try on 53 minutes from a tap and go near the England try line.
England were superior throughout, however, opening the scoring in the fifth minute when Hannah Botterman crashed over after a lineout.
Ella Wyrwas, Packer and Jess Breach also crossed in the first 40 minutes, while Packer and Megan Jones added further scores for England in the second half.
“It was great victory. The Aussies come out, gave us a really good game and asked us loads of questions,” said Packer. “We talked about being courageous. And that’s what we did today and we’re going to grow into this tournament.”
Wallaroos coach Jay Tregonning wasn’t too downcast.
“We’re looking at consistency across all of our game,” he said. “We knew we’d have to execute our strategies and the ones we put in place clearly did work, it was just our execution that let us down on occasions.”
Carys Dallinger of Australia offloads the ball during the WXV1 Match between England and Australia Wallaroos at Sky Stadium on October 20, 2023 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Mark Tantrum – World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)
Wallaroos skipper Michaela Leonard said: “That’s definitely not the result we wanted but congratulations to England. They’re No.1 in the world for a reason and they showed that tonight.
“I’m proud of our girls. We know that England is really strong in the set piece and when I look at the scrum for the whole 80 we put it to them, competed with them and that’s a massive work on for us.
“Obviously coming out of this week it’s our execution that let us down. we know we’re competing and when we got it right it worked well for us.”
The Wallaroos play France and Wales in the next two weeks.
“Every game we play we want to come away with a win and we think we can do that,” said Leonard. “I think we let ourselves down tonight. No disrespect to England but the errors came from a sense we had in our control.”
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