Kangaroos bash Bravehearts in Four Nations opener

Correspondent

Australia have kicked off the Four Nations in style with a rountine 54-12 win over Scotland in Hull.

The green and gold ran in 10 tries to Scotland‘s two at the KC Lightstream Stadium in front of 5,377 fans.

It took Australia just four minutes to break through, with Blake Ferguson carrying a few defenders over the line to score.

Five minutes later the Kangaroos were in again. Cameron Smith grubbered perfectly into the path of Cooper Cronk to touch down.

Australia were flying and debutant James Maloney was the next to score, courtesy of a pass from Matt Moylan after a lovely inside ball from Cronk.

After 13 minutes it was 16-0.

The tries kept flowing for the green and gold, next it was Cronk’s turn. Tyson Frizell broke away down the left flank and found Cronk in support.

Scotland rarely had the ball but when they did near the Australian line Dale Ferguson unfortunately knocked it on.

Australia made it 26-0 when Josh Mansour touched down on the left wing off a Moylan cut-out pass.

Mansour then picked up his second for the night after Maloney strolled through some paper-thin defence to find Moylan, who then offloaded to his Penrith teammate.

But Scotland hit back just before half-time. Australia coughed up the ball and the Bravehearts made them pay.

Danny Brough grubbered in and Ryan Brierley read it brilliantly to dive over to score.

The first half finished with the Kangaroos in control 30-6.

Josh Dugan opened the scoring in the second half with an impressive run from 50 minutes out.

Scotland were the next to cross – an offload from Adam Walker putting Ben Kavanagh through.

The conversion took the score to 36-12.

But the Kangaroos went up another gear to score twice more, Tyson Frizzel and Michael Morgan grabbing tries.

Debutant Jake Trbojevic got the final try of the evening to complete the rout.