Kangaroos thump Scots in Four Nations

Australia have kicked off their Four Nations campaign with a 54-12 win over Scotland at Hull’s KC Lightstream Stadium.

The Kangaroos ran in 10 tries against the Bravehearts with Cooper Cronk and Josh Mansour grabbing two apiece.

Australia produced an almost flawless first 40 minutes to roar into a 30-6 lead over a shell-shocked Scotland but their plucky opponents battled back well in the second half to restore some pride.

Mal Meninga’s side were scoring more than a point a minute midway through the opening period.

Two Cronk tries, and four-pointers from James Maloney, who kicked three goals, and Blake Ferguson opened up a 22-0 lead after a quarter of an hour.

Scotland struggled to get out of their half as the Kangaroos forwards dominated the Bravehearts’ pack and there was little the Scots could do to stop the green-and-gold onslaught with Mansour profiting from a glorious Matt Moylan pass to score in the left corner.

The Penrith winger crossed again just before the interval but Maloney was unable to convert the kick.

However, the Scots did manage to finish the half with a flourish as Ryan Brierley marked his debut with a diving effort after Danny Brough threaded a kick through before nailing the conversion.

Josh Dugan raced over from 50 metres after being put clear by man of the match Moylan but was then forced off with a head injury.

The Scots did score a second try through Ben Kavanagh but the Australians extended their advantage with late tries from Tyson Frizell, Michael Morgan and Jake Trobojevic.

Meninga was full of praise for Moylan who laid on four of his side’s tries.

“Moylan was exceptional, good from the start when the players think he was the best player on the footy field it tells you everything,” he said.

“It’s the beauty of this team … we are 24 deep our job is to pick the best team.

“It’s good to have internal pressure, the boys get on well.”

Scotland coach Steve McCormack was disappointed by the big scoreline against his side.

“We don’t want to be known as dogged Scotland… we need to improve .. I was proud of the effort but we have to learn some lessons from tonight,” said McCormack.

“Look at the players who didn’t play for Australia today, it’s pretty formidable. They’ll cause other sides all sorts of problems.”

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