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| The Australians are the World champions |
Record breaker Johnathan Thurston inspired Australia to
their tenth World Cup after an empathic victory over New Zealand at a sold out
Old Trafford.
Thurston was perfect with the boot kicking five conversions
and two penalties which put himself in the record books after surpassing Mick
Cronin’s record of being Australia’s all-time leading point scorer.
Braces from Billy Slater and Brett Morris and also a try
from scrum half Cooper Cronk was enough for the Kangaroos to recapture the
world crown.
The green and golds were never behind on the scoreboard, the
closest the Kiwis got of matching their counterparts was a Shaun Johnson
penalty to level the scores at two apiece. After that, the Australians ran
riot.
Tim Sheens’ men maintained their impressive streak of not
conceding a try since the opening weekend of the World Cup when Josh Charnley
went over for England.
It didn’t take long for the Australians to get the
scoreboard rolling, Kieran Foran’s nudge on Billy Slater provided Thurston with
the opportunity to slot over the game’s opening points.
After surviving some early pressure from their Trans-Tasman
rivals, the Kiwis levelled things up after Elijah Taylor was taken high by
Cameron Smith.
Billy Slater showed the attributes of an Aussies Rules
footballer for the game’s first try, as he leaped highest to pluck Thurston’s
accurate chip out of the air to touchdown close to the posts.
The pressure on New Zealand continued, Vatuvei failed to
deal with Cronk’s high bomb, Jarryd Hayne using some soccer skills you’d
normally find at Old Trafford on a Saturday afternoon to hack the ball back on
the inside for Cronk to get over the line only to be denied by a terrific
tackle from Isaac Luke to prevent him getting the ball down.
However the 2013 Dally M medallist wasn’t to be denied again,
just before the half hour mark quick hands to the left hand side opened up some
space for Darius Boyd to run into and chip ahead for his team-mates, Cronk
collected the kick and barged his way over.
Johnathan Thurston increased his side’s lead just before the
break with a penalty to become Australia’s all-time leading point scorer ahead
of Mick Cronin and to stretch the Aussie’s lead to sixteen points to two.
Three tries in the second half ensured the win for the
Australians, Slater completed his double inside the first minute with a short
side play with Thurston committing defenders to send Darius Boyd away down the
left. His inside ball allowed Slater to sprint to the try line with ease.
Australia’s dominance was a result of being able to offload
the ball and take advantage. Josh Papilii’s offload sent Brett Morris racing
down the touchline to kick ahead, Jarryd Hayne juggled the ball and kicked on
before the ball touched the ground. Morris pounced on the ball for the try to open
up a twenty six point gap following Thurston’s conversion.
The Kiwis tried everything to give the score line a more
respectable touch, newly acclaimed International Player of The Year Sonny Bill
Williams had his pass intercepted by Hayne who powered through the gears to head
for the New Zealand line to set up his winger Brett Morris to round off the
scoring.
Coach Tim Sheens praised his side’s performance by saying:
“I’m extremely proud, we came over in front of a big crowd. I thought we
performed really well, our defence was great and our attitude was terrific.”
