Kangaroos crush Lions 52-4 in Melbourne

     

Australia look well on the way to an eighth straight Rugby League World Cup title after demolishing England 52-4 in their pool match at Melbourne's Telstra Dome.

A week trouncing New Zealand - the other side expected to challenge them for the crown - the Kangaroos again looked a class above as they ran in nine tries to one, Storm pair Greg Inglis and Billy Slater delighting their home fans with hat-tricks.

The pair combined for an exhilarating 100-metre try midway through the second half, Inglis collecting an England grubber on his own goal line before finding Slater, who ran rings around Lions winger Mark Calderwood on his way to the line.

Such was Australia's dominance that coach Ricky Stuart could afford to give skipper Darren Lockyer a 23-minute early mark - the ice wrapped around his strained biceps more precaution than cause for alarm.

England showed some signs of life, particularly out of dummy half where diminutive halfback Rob Burrow and James Roby caused numerous headaches for a retreating defence, but their good moments were sporadic against a clinical Australian side.

The win all but assures the Kangaroos - provided they don't slip up against Papua New Guinea next Sunday - top spot heading into the semi-finals, but it hardly seems to matter who else qualifies for the final four with another World Cup appearing a formality for the home side.

It looked like turning into a rout early as Slater and Inglis scored their first tries inside the opening 10 minutes, Slater pouncing on a Cameron Smith grubber to continue a huge six-day period that began with the birth of his daughter on Monday.

The English were rattled, even the simplest task of getting to their kick at the end of the set was too tough, but momentum shifted as the Kangaroos - perhaps plagued by complacency - dropped several balls and gave away silly penalties.

It coincided with England's best period of the match, though they received more than a little help from video referee Ashley Klein who gave Roby the benefit of the doubt as he attempted to ground the ball to put the visitors back in the contest at 12-4.

That was as good as it got, their night summed up when Paul Wellens - just minutes out from the halftime break - allowed a kick to roll over the dead ball line without a defender in sight.

Unfortunately for Wellens the ball had been

touched off Cameron Smith's boot by another Englishman. Anthony Laffranchi crashed over from the ensuing drop out to give Australia a commanding 22-4 halftime lead.

Inglis and Slater turned the second half into a party as they toyed with their opponents.

Slater's length of the field effort was followed just minutes later by Inglis's third when a short kick off went horribly wrong for England and the Melbourne superstar sprinted away after picking up the loose ball on his own 40 metre line.

Stuart claimed some of the performances were the best he had seen at an international level.

"You saw some exceptional attacking flair, individual attacking flair - I think it's got to be applauded," Stuart said.

"What you saw Greg Inglis do there tonight, and that ball from Billy to Joel (Monaghan) to put him away in the corner and Billy Slater himself is nothing short of brilliant.

"Some of the talent out there tonight was some of the best individual pieces of talent I've seen at this level of football."

Slater, who was joined by his father in the dressing room after the match, said things just clicked as the Australian backline piled on the points.

"It's not very often that Greggy doesn't click, he's a great player and you just hang around a player like Greg Inglis something's going to happen for you," Slater said of his 100 metre try.

England coach Tony Smith said his players were capable of bouncing back against New Zealand next weekend in a match that amounts to little more than a dead rubber with both teams likely to meet a week later in a semi-final.

"I'm not shell shocked - we're disappointed, we're hurting," Smith said.

"All players that have played this game have been in that situation where they got a good thumping and we got one tonight by a very, very good team.

"Everybody's hurting and they'll be that way tonight and probably for a day or so."

Source: AAP