Reece Walsh has illuminated the renewal of Ashes rugby league after a 22-year absence with a glorious two-try tour de force as the Kangaroos powered to a 26-6 victory over outclassed England in the first Test at Wembley.
It felt fitting the Broncos fullback, who lit up the grand final a fortnight earlier back home, should now announce himself as the premier star in the international game too.
His electric running, not to mention two try-saving interventions, lit up England’s national stadium in London on Saturday. ‘He’s one of the best we’ve seen,’ as his admiring teammate Nathan Cleary put it.
‘It’s been a pretty surreal couple of weeks,’ beamed Walsh, who scored a quite superb first try in the 22nd minute which provided the springboard for Kevin Walters’ world champions to increasingly dominate, especially after the break, in their four-try romp.
Angus Crichton also eased over for a try double before the game’s poster boy sealed the deal with his own second in the 72nd minute. Cleary kicked all five of his shots.
But asked to choose between his two scores and the try-saving efforts, when he stopped a two-on-one English attack and then won a race on the retreat to get to a try-bound kick first, the 23-year-old Walsh beamed: ‘Yeah, probably the two I stopped – it went a long way to us winning.’
Brisbane Broncos star Reece Walsh carried on where he left off in the NRL Grand Final against England in the return of Ashes football at Wembley Stadium
Walsh was too much to handle as the new-look Kangaroos romped to a 26-6 win over England
After all those years waiting to see the renewal of one of sport’s grandest old rivalries, some things just never change as the Kangaroos’ dominance ensured they’ll be prohibitive favourites to earn a clean sweep in Liverpool and Leeds over the next two weekends for a 14th successive series win.
They won in front of an Ashes-record crowd in England, despite losing skipper Isaah Yeo to a head knock in just the eighth minute, which will keep him out of the Liverpool Test.
Yet the Kangaroos’ ring-rust was gradually shed before 60,812 pairs of eyes as the sheer pace, slickness and coherence in attack, based on the controlling Cameron Munster-Cleary axis, proved on a completely different level to Shaun Wane’s hosts.
Daryl Clark’s late score for England felt less like a consolation than a life raft, giving them some faint hope to cling to next week.
Wane said the poor execution from his underperforming side had felt like ‘torture’, and promised they’d be better next week.
But so will the Aussies. ‘Not at all. We were really sloppy in the first half and can do a lot better,’ growled Crichton when feted with praise.
It was Walsh who brought a spectacular end to some early, nervy sparring when he found impressive dual code star Mark Nawaqanitawase, another of their four debutants, with a lovely cut-out pass, only for the ex-Wallaby to flick the ball back inside to Kotoni Staggs, with the centre finding the flying fullback on his inside.
It was a wonderful score, and after another probing attack down the right inspired by Nawaqanitawase came up just short, Walsh also delivered a wonderful reverse pass that looked to have put Crichton over, only for the try to be ruled out for an earlier infringement by Josh Addo-Carr.
It comes after Walsh starred in the NRL finals and earned his first appearance in the green and gold
With his side 8-0 up at the break, the Walsh show recommenced straight after the break when he skipped away from England’s much-touted dangerman Mikey Lewis, weaved past three defenders and launched a mesmeric 80m attack that was only foiled yards from the line.
Soon after, Crichton grabbed the limelight with his brace, taking advantage of some feeble defending for the first and being fed for his second by Munster after a delicious dummy from the Storm schemer.
Munster reckoned England had been a bit unlucky. ‘They played some good footy, but I think we scrambled rally well in defence. We’re going to be better next week, we know we’ll be better.’
He was being charitable.
It was, of course, Walsh with the final say, thanks to a sharp breakaway try that sealed another man-of-the-match afternoon.
What did Walters think of him? ‘Oh, he was okay, you know, without being great,’ smiled the coach, with a nice line in irony.
‘It’s just good to see him finally in the green and gold, and just being Reece Walsh, just playing footy. It’s great to see.’
