The first match of Saturday’s historic quadruple header in Sydney has started perfectly, as the Wallaroos put an ill-disciplined Scotland to the sword with a 56-12 victory at Accor Stadium.
Coming off a 30-10 victory last month in Edinburgh, the Australians looked to make a statement ahead of transitioning to full professionalism at the end of the year, and went a long way to finding that complete performance thanks to a dominant flurry of tries in the first half.
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The Scots found success early going wide, with Katie Buchanan cutting the Wallaroos’ cover defence to shreds inside four minutes, stepping past Waiaria Ellis to score and give the visitors a perfect start.
However, once the Wallaroos got their execution under control, it proved lethal.
With time in Scottish territory and finding success in a direct approach up front, the resulting pressure saw the Scottish defence condense, and Brittany Merlo benefitted from a change of attack, scoring her side’s first, with Samatha Wood converting to give her side the lead.
While Scotland looked to return fire in space, their discipline saw them struggle to execute their game plan, giving away six penalties inside the first 20 minutes.
The Wallaroos continued to stretch the visitors, and in the 21st minute extended their lead, flinging the ball wide to Maya Stewart to grab her side’s second.
Under pressure, the Scots were reduced to 14 after too many penalties, with Meryl Smith picking up a yellow card.
The overlap only compounded the pressure, with the Wallaroos putting their time with ball in hand to good use as Desiree Miller found her way through immediately after the card to give the Australians their third try.
Only four minutes later, a stellar long-range individual effort saw Amelia Whitaker get her first try in gold, completing the trifecta of back three players getting on the scoresheet, and with Waiaria Ellis scoring three minutes later, the Scots found themselves with a mountain of work to do, down 35-5 at halftime.
However, if the visitors were looking for a miracle comeback, the Australians kept rampaging when they came back out, with a scrum on the Scottish five metre line seeing Miller go over for her second two minutes into the second half.
However, a penalty for holding on saw the Scots finally get the chance to have some ball in Australian territory; the decision to go up the guts was rewarded in the 46th minute with skipper Rachel Malcolm fining her way over at close range.
However, with more time in Australian territory, the Scots struggled to break through, with small errors proving costly as the hosts’ attack continued to threaten and strike from deep.
With the sides in a tense arm wrestle, it would be the hosts that would break the deadlock, as Whitaker nabbed her second in the 65th minute with an even better long-range effort from deep, a contender for try of the year as the hosts closed in on 50 points.
Things got worse for Scotland in the final ten minutes, as Eva Donaldson was sent to the bin for a high shot on Eva Karpani, as the Wallaroos went to the corner for a final try.
With 20 seconds to go, the women in gold finally cracked 50 to put an exclamation point on a strong performance, with Eva Karpani carrying several Scots over the line to score her side’s eighth and final try.
Australia 56 (Tries: Merlo, Stewart, Miller 2, Whitaker 2, Ellis, Karpani. Cons: Wood 6/6, Moleka 2/2) def Scotland 12 (Tries: Buchanan, Malcolm. Cons: Nelson 1/2)
