For better or for worse, Australia hit the turning point of their World Cup campaign against Lebanon.
The Kangaroos ran out 48-4 winners in the end, chopping down the Cedars as the fireworks from Guy Fawkes Night exploded in the sky above the John Smith Stadium in Huddersfield.
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None of the pyrotechnics burned as brightly as Josh Addo-Carr, who ran in five tries to continue his outstanding tournament, while Cameron Murray was superb off the bench and James Tedesco played his best game of the tournament before he was rested for the second half.
Lebanon held their own for the opening 20 minutes and never threw in the towel as they competed hard to the end.
In doing so they gave the green and gold their toughest test since their tournament opener against Fiji, but the class of the Australians proved impossible for Michael Cheika’s side to resist.
All the usual suspects were at it again for the Kangaroos, doing all the things they’d been doing all through the tour. In fact, it felt a lot like Australia’s previous matches. The names, faces and details might change slightly, but the song remains the same.
The Kangaroos have become adept at dispatching teams in stylish fashion, running out huge winners in each match they’ve played.
Next week, mercifully, Australia should finally have a real test. With due respect to Fiji, New Zealand should handle the Bati without too much trouble when they face off in their own quarter-final clash in Hull tomorrow.
Then, at last, we should have a true contest. New Zealand hasn’t blown the doors off teams like Australia has, but the side has plenty of talent up and down their roster and a habit of building through tournaments to peak at just the right time.
You can make the case their forward pack is superior to Australia’s and while Meninga has tinkered with his team throughout the tournament, Michael Maguire has known what his best spine was from the jump and played accordingly.
Brandon Smith and his New Zealand teammates will finally provide Australia with a challenge at the Rugby League World Cup.(Getty Images: Danny Lawson)
Any team with Joseph Manu, Dylan Brown, Jahrome Hughes and Brandon Smith in the spine can beat any other team in the world, even one as mighty as Australia.
But the Kangaroos will rightly go into the match as the warmest of favourites. The possibility of anybody else winning the World Cup feels more and more remote every time Australia plays.
You can talk yourself into complacency sinking in, or Australia being underdone and not battle-hardened for a tough fight after so many matches that resembled training runs.
But at some point, you must accept reality and the reality of this situation is that Australia is making all this look very, very easy.
So this win over Lebanon becomes the point of no return. Two realities stretch before us.
Either those murmurs about the Kangaroos having it too easy prove prescient, with New Zealand getting the jump on Australia at Elland Road next week and the Kangaroos floundering — unaccustomed to the heat of a true contest — and lose a World Cup game for just the second time this century.
Or things go the other way, and Australia puts on another clinic despite the rise in the quality of opposition. As accomplished as the Kiwis are, such an outcome is very possible.
It wouldn’t be the first time a New Zealand team has taken on Australia with high expectations and failed to reach them.
Tournament hosts will be hoping we get something closer to the former. The World Cup is crying out for somebody, anybody to play a close match.
We might get it when Tonga plays Samoa in the last of the quarter-finals, but there’s every chance the semi-finals start with just two of 28 matches being decided by six points or less. For all the positives that can be had from a World Cup, the beatings are what many people will remember.
But that’s not Australia’s problem. They’re here to win and win well and that’s exactly what they’re doing.
This is what they’re made for and even if the World Cup might not be going to the most compelling plan, it’s playing out exactly the way Australia would like.
Source:: ABC News
