Australia and England have sounded an ominous warning to everyone else in the women’s division of #RLWC2021.
After the first two rounds, both the Jillaroos and the English have stamped their authority on the competition in no uncertain terms with the Aussies in particular putting daylight between themselves and the rest of the field.
England opened Round 2 with a comprehensive 54-4 thumping of Canada in their Group A clash in Wigan on Saturday. The English women piled on the pressure in the first half and went to the main break with a comfortable 30-0 buffer.
And again, it was Tara-Jane Stanley who paved the way for the English by scoring a hat-trick of tries. She also converted five of their 11 tries. Leah Burke and Hollie Dodd each bagged doubles. For the Ravens, it was another disappointing performance, particularly on defence. Petra Woods scored their only points of the game.
In the other Group A contest, Papua New Guinea continued on its winning ways by shutting out Brazil 70-0 in Hull. The Orchids amassed 14 tries and had ten different try-scorers. Lilah Malabag, who nabbed one of those tries, also booted seven conversions to round out the scoring.
Sunday’s Group B games saw New Zealand triumph over the Cook Islands, while Australia hammered France.
Despite their 34-4 win, the Kiwi Ferns weren’t overly dominant against the Cook Islands in York. They led by just 14-0 at halftime and went on to outscore their opponents by seven tries to one.
Mele Hufanga and Raecene McGregor each scored a pair of tries for the New Zealanders.
In the final game of the round in York, the Australians made their intentions known right from the start and proceeded to score at more than a point a minute against a French team that simply had no answers to the Jillaroos’ onslaught.
The women from down under kept pounding the ball forward and didn’t let up for a minute on their way to building an insurmountable 58-0 lead by the half. Leading the way for the Jillaroos was Jessica Sergis, who scored four tries, along with Julia Robinson and Jaime Chapman, each of whom scored a hat-trick.
In all, Australia scored 17 tries in the 92-0 scoreline, which is the biggest winning margin of the competition thus far.
