Ireland's Rugby League World Cup fate out of their hands after New Zealand defeat

Ireland's Rugby League World Cup fate looks all but over after a 48-10 defeat to New Zealand at Headingley.

Ireland had no answer to the silky skills of Melbourne scrum-half Jahrome Hughes, who sat out the Kiwis' opening two matches because of injury, but they played with plenty of spirit and gave their fans something to cheer, with winger Louis Senior scoring a try in each half to go joint top of the scoring charts with six touchdowns in his three games.

It was a big improvement on the Wolfhounds’ costly 32-14 defeat by Lebanon last weekend but their tournament exit will be confirmed if the hotly fancied Cedars beat Jamaica in Leigh on Sunday.

New Zealand hit their straps with 10 tries but they are facing a potential disciplinary worry with fiery prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, fresh from serving a three-match ban carried over from the NRL, sin-binned for an ugly high tackle on replacement front rower Dan Norman just before half-time.

Norman played no further part in the game after failing his head injury assessment and Ireland also lost another of their substitutes, Henry O’Kane, in similar fashion early in the second half.

The Wolfhounds went into the game without three front-row forwards because of injury and suspension but they were by no means disgraced against their world number-one ranked opponents.

They had huge support among the 14,044 crowd and they had plenty to cheer in the opening stages as Ed Chamberlain gave them the lead with a 12th-minute penalty awarded for a ball steal.

But the partisan fans had little option but to admire the sublime skills of Hughes and his half-back partner Dylan Brown, who were paired together for the first time in the tournament.

Hughes demonstrated electric footwork to score the first