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.”
Hugh_96
Roar Pro
The score line is pretty brutal but thought the Wallaroos at times looked pretty good. The scrum was ok but the lineout a disaster. Against the big teams you just can’t lose that many lineouts. Similarly the Wallaroos can’t afford to have 2 yellow cards. Pity Stewart is out of the next game, will be interesting to see how Dallinger recovers. BTW the Canada/Wales game was pretty tight in the first half, in the end Canada were just unrelenting, they are a good team.
Long Retired Lock
Roar Rookie
Was impressed with the referee, she was exceptional in her discussions with players.
moaman
Roar Guru
Overall that was an extremely positive and encouraging display from the Wallaroos. The tweaks in personnel really paid off. Two huge concerns for me that need addressing internally imo really stood out. The first was when Breach scored shortly before halftime. England cleverly worked the short side and put the winger over in the corner. But what followed was disgraceful. Pretty much all the Aussie players stood still while Breach tiptoed along the dead ball line to dot down under the sticks. Only belatedly did a couple of players then react and try to tackle her. Not acceptable at any level. The other issue i had was Codey's reaction when the ref (who was excellent I thought) and ARs were looking at the big screen during the high tackle review. She was smirking. Instead of being concerned that she had learnt absolutely nothing from being binned earlier for the same offence (and one that was close to an outright red) and that she was now going to leave her team mates understaffed, she appeared to find it all quite amusing! Think the coaches really need to deal with that pronto. Australia actually played their best rugby for the final quarter with 14 players. The rest of the team can take a huge amount out of that performance. England were well below the slick machine we saw at the RWC but they showed glimpses of power and pace. Aitcheson was top draw and has an amazing boot and gives them accuracy and field position when they want it. Plenty of speed on the flanks and willingness to use it too. Scrappy game but interesting all the same. Augurs well for the series.
Bliksem
Roar Rookie
That’s a smashing photo! Gable the physicality of the collision and the preparedness to put your body on the line to keep the ball alive.
Ankle-tapped Waterboy
Roar Rookie
Great to see the positive yet realistic messages coming out of both camps. Also we see many good examples of sports photography here on the Roar. The photo in this article is another excellent one.