RLWC quick hits: Big crowds and bigger scorelines in week two

The second week of the Rugby League World Cup was short on genuine contests as the tournament’s haves and have-nots collided.

Aside from Australia’s win over Fiji, where the gallant Bati gave the Kangaroos a hell of a scare, it was big scorelines across the board.

But with fans across three Australian states and two other counties voting with their feet, there are still plenty of quick hits from the second round of matches.

1. Tongan wall holds yet again

For the second week in a row, Tonga’s opponent enjoyed plenty of field position and for the second week in a row Tonga’s scrambling defence proved more than up to the challenge.

After holding England to 12 points last week, despite the English enjoying 34 tackles inside the red zone to Tonga’s 18, they repeated the dose against Lebanon on Friday night.

The Cedars came in with an offload-heavy game plan and had some success moving the ball up the field. By the end, they had 29 tackles inside the attacking 20 to Tonga’s 30, but that was where they stalled.

Some of it was due to a lack of creativity but there were plenty of last-gasp Tongan efforts to deny Lebanese players who looked tryline bound, and it means Tonga carry a strong form line into Sunday’s blockbuster against Samoa.

2. Samoa running riot over PNG is a sign of the times

Rarely will you see two halves of a single game more different than what Samoa and Papua New Guinea dished up in Port Moresby.

The Kumuls held the gloves up well through the opening 40, trailing just 14-6 at the break and could have been even closer had Robert Derby successfully grounded the ball for their second try.

But what followed was a procession: Samoa scored 50 unanswered points in the second half, as their size and athleticism totally overwhelmed PNG, who had just four sets in the entire stanza.

Of all the blowout results this weekend, this more than any other was a sign of the times. Rugby league’s embrace of the set restart rule and the increased speed of the game makes it almost impossible for an underdog team to stay in the fight beyond a certain point and when things break they can break badly.

Samoa only had to make 36 tackles through the entire second and the Kumuls only got over halfway for two tackles.

They finished the game conceding six tries in 15 minutes against a side they had held their own against for the whole first half.

There were plenty of less-extreme examples of the same through this year’s NRL season, most notably when a top eight side conceded the third-most points in a game ever, but it’s been turned up to greater levels through this World Cup given the talent and fitness disparity and it stacks the deck even further against the underdogs.

3. France’s woes continue in England smash-up

England beat the clock against their old rivals in Perth, running out 82-0 winners in a result that means France have conceded 160 points in as many minutes through their two matches.

It’s hard to find any silver lining for Les Chanticleers and ahead of their tournament finale against Lebanon, the French game finds itself in a strange position.

The potential for growth or a return to the glory days when France were one of Test football’s true powers is always the dream, and with two Super League clubs in Catalans Dragons and Toulouse — giving France more professional teams than New Zealand — they seemingly have the ingredients and infrastructure for improvement.

All but two of this year’s squad were home-grown players and since 2020 they have won nine of the 16 Tests they have played, with all seven losses coming against England or Samoa.

Problem is, across those seven games they have been outscored by a cumulative total of 394-44, with this England loss the worst of them.

There’s greater pathways to the top for French talent than ever before but they can’t seem to close the gap between them and the big dogs.

If anything, the gap has become wider. Nine years ago, in the 2017 World Cup, they played England at the same ground and lost 36-6 a week after losing to Australia 52-6.

Those scorelines aren’t exactly a good time, but they’re not a point-a-minute for two straight weeks either.

The Southern Hemisphere racing ahead of the north is a wider issue for the sport, but France are the collateral damage and they don’t have a contingent of heritage NRL players to paper over the cracks.

4. Christchurch puts its best foot forward

Despite Esom Ioka’s first-half hat-trick that briefly gave the Cook Islands the lead, few would have ever expected the Aitu to trouble New Zealand for long in their match at Te Kaha in Christchurch.

That didn’t stop a sell-out crowd of 26,800 coming through the gates, marking the fifth biggest Test attendance of the past century in New Zealand and the highest ever for a game outside of Auckland.

It was a strong week of crowds throughout the tournament — Tonga and Lebanon pulled in more than 25,000 and Australia topped 40,000 for the second week in a row despite taking on Fiji.

But with the NRL expansion race heating up as the league prepares to hand out a licence for a 20th team, Christchurch showing up in droves did their chances of winning the bid no harm at all.

5. Fiji take Australia to the brink

Speaking of that Australian-Fiji crowd, the 41,108 punters who packed into Lang Park didn’t just push the attendance past that of the 2017 World Cup final at the same venue, they were treated to easily the best clash of the weekend.

On the back of an inspired display by five-eighth Kurt Donoghoe and a hat-trick to Castleford winger Semi Valemei, Fiji pushed Australia all the way before a late Jacob Preston try wrapped up a 36-22 win for the green and golds.

Consider the previous margins between the two (42-8, 54-6 and 64-0 in their last three meetings) and it’s a measure of how far the Bati have come and how this World Cup is more up for grabs than one might think.

A couple of contentious calls and some killer instinct in key moments got the Kangaroos home.

But on what they’ve shown through two weeks, Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand will all fancy their chances of springing an upset should they meet Australia, who have wrapped up a semi-final berth in surprisingly shaky fashion.

dan