All of the pre-tournament favourites have notched big wins in the first round of the preliminary matches of the Women’s #RLWC2021.
Host nation England opened the tournament on Tuesday, November 1st with a massive, though not unexpected, 72-4 thrashing of Brazil.
Amy Hardcastle and Courtney Winfield-Hill led the way for the English with a hat-trick of tries each and they were ably assisted by Tara-Jane Stanley, who bagged a pair. She also booted eight goals to round out the scoring.
In the second match of the opening day doubleheader in Leeds, Papua New Guinea had to work hard to post an eventual 34-12 win against a game Canada. The Canadians were in touch at halftime, trailing by just 8-6, but a series of defensive errors and lacklustre tackling in the second half led to their demise.
In the end, the Orchids outscored the Ravens by seven tries to two.
Day 2 of the tournament started with New Zealand posting a 46-0 shutout of a disappointing France. The Kiwi Ferns led 20-0 at the main break and were led in attack by Katelyn Vaha’akolo and Roxy Murdoch-Masila, who scored two tries apiece.
The Ferns won comfortably by putting on nine tries while keeping their own try line intact.
And in the last game of the first round, Australia put up the biggest winning margin with a 72-0 blowout of the Cook Islands.
Sam Bremner, who hails from Sydney, led the Jillaroos’ onslaught with four tries. Evania Pelite scored a hat-trick, while Julia Robinson and Tarryn Aiken each got doubles. In total, the Aussie women crossed the try line 14 times, the most of any team in the opening round.