Rugby news from Down Under
Australia have comprehensively beaten Britain 64-10 in their one-off Rugby League test at the Aussie Stadium, Sydney today.
Australia ran in 11 tries against a bewildered British side, whose only consolation came through Kevin Sinfield and Karl Pratt tries during the second half.
The visitors didn’t start too badly, matching their opponents for the first part of the game. When Chris McKenna broke the deadlock for Australia after 18 minutes however the floodgates opened and two minutes later Scott Hill made it 12-0 to the visitors.
After that it was plain sailing for the home team and a further four first half tries saw them open up a 34-0 half time lead. Five more tries capped a memorable performance for the world leaders in the sport while Britain had to be content with second-half consolation tries for Pratt and Sinfield.
In other news theNew Zealand rugby team’s worst fears were realised on Friday when two of their key players, lock Norm Maxwell and loose forward Taine Randell, were ruled out through injury ahead of their opening match in the 2002 Tri-Nations series.
The All Blacks will face the Wallabies at the Jade Stadium in Christchurch on Saturday, but the Kiwis will be without two of their key players, Maxwell and Randell. They have been replaced by Otago lock Simon Maling and Canterbury No.8 Sam Broomhall.
Maxwell has been ruled out of the squad with a hamstring injury, whilst Randell had been struggling with a calf strain and failed a fitness test today (Friday). This news comes after the shock announcement on Wednesday that Jonah Lomu and his Wellington Hurricanes team-mate Tana Umaga had been dropped from the squad.
The teams line out as follows:
New Zealand: 15 Christian Cullen, 14 Doug Howlett, 13 Mark Robinson, 12 Aaron Mauger (vice-captain), 11 Caleb Ralph, 10 Andrew Mehrtens, 9 Justin Marshall, 8 Scott Robertson, 7 Richard McCaw, 6 Reuben Thorne (captain), 5 Simon Maling, 4 Chris Jack, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Mark Hammett (vice-captain), 1 Dave Hewett.
Replacements: 16 Tom Willis, 17 Joe McDonnell, 18 Royce Willis, 19 Sam Broomhall, 20 Byron Kelleher, 21 Daryl Gibson, 22 Ben Blair.
Australia: 15 Chris Latham, 14 Ben Tune, 13 Matthew Burke (vice-captain), 12 Daniel Herbert, 11 Stirling Mortlock, 10 Stephen Larkham, 9 George Gregan (captain), 8 Toutai Kefu, 7 George Smith, 6 Owen Finegan, 5 Justin Harrison, 4 Nathan Sharpe, 3 Patricio Noriega, 2 Jeremy Paul, 1 Bill Young.
Replacements: 16 Brendan Cannon, 17 Ben Darwin, 18 Matt Cockbain, 19 David Lyons, 20 Chris Whitaker, 21 Elton Flatley, 22 Mat Rogers, 23 Daniel Vickerman.