Rugby League-Rampant Australia crush England 26-6 at Wembley

LONDON :Australia outclassed England 26-6 at Wembley to win the opening test of the first Ashes rugby league series for 22 years on Saturday as two tries each for star fullback Reece Walsh and Angus Crichton were a fair reflection of their dominance.

Australia have won the last 13 series since Britain’s last success in 1970 and always looked to have more in attack against an England team whose early strong defence became ragged and who failed to execute when their few try-scoring chances arose.

It was a huge anti-climax for most of the 60,812 crowd, a UK record for an Ashes test, as England struggled to make any inroads until Daryl Clark’s late consolation try.

"It was pretty surreal being at Wembley," said man-of-the-match and debutant Walsh. "I'm probably happier with the two tries I stopped (than the two I scored). I think that goes a long way to getting the result."

England coach Shaun Wane had no complaints. "The best team won. They made how many line breaks and scored? We made line breaks and didn't score," he said.

"We weren't clinical enough. I thought our physicality was good and our effort was good, but our finishing end of sets, the way we kicked - all the things that have a huge affect on your energy and all of a sudden you're gassed and you can't attack the same.

"But the positive thing is we can correct that. We can be miles better than that and that's what we aim to do."

ATTRITIONAL OPENING QUARTER

After an attritional opening quarter, Australia finally worked some space wide on the right for Mark Nawaqanitawase and Kotoni Staggs to make ground and offload inside for Walsh to dive over.

Walsh, man-of-the-match when Brisbane Broncos beat Melbourne Storm in the NRL Grand Final three weeks ago, then showed his