Australia eased to a comfortable 26-4 win over New Zealand in Wollongong.
New Zealand started brightly but found themselves behind through Latrell Mitchell’s penalty. The centre then intercepted Shaun Johnson’s pass and fed Josh Addo-Carr for the first try of the game on 20 minutes.
Tyson Frizell’s try seven minutes later brought Australia’s lead up to 12 but Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad’s score with seven minutes to play in the first half brought the Kiwis back into the game.
But New Zealand didn’t give themselves a chance in the second half as errors decimated their game. They fell further behind when some hot potato stuff from the visitors inadvertently saw Damien Cook race away.
Then more good work from the Aussie hooker led to James Tedesco’s try.
Australia: Tedesco, Addo-Carr, Mitchell, Wighton, Cotric, Munster, Cherry-Evans, Papalii, Cook, Klemmer, Cordner, Frizell, Trbojevic; Interchanges: Hunt, Haas, Vaughan, Graham
Tries: Addo-Carr, Frizell, Cook, Tedesco; Goals: Mitchell 4, Cherry-Evans
New Zealand: Tuivasa-Sheck, Maumalo, Nicoll-Klokstad, Manu, Isaako, Johnson, Marshall, Ah Mau, Smith, Waerea-Hargreaves, Nikora, Bromwich, Blair; Interchanges: Hughes, Tetevano, Hamlin-Uele, Harawira-Naera
Tries: Nicoll-Klokstad; Goals:
A full match report of this game and the Junior Kangaroos’ win against France will feature in Monday’s League Express.