Five years after she was taking wickets for Brisbane Heat in the Women's Big Bash League Courtney Winfield-Hill scored a hat-trick of tries as England launched the Women's Rugby League World Cup in style.
Winfield-Hill changed sports and nationality after meeting then marrying England cricketer and former Heat teammate Lauren Winfield-Hill and moving to England.
Recently qualified for her adopted country (she would not have been eligible if the tournament had been played last year as scheduled) the 35-year-old was heavily involved as England hammered newcomers Brazil at Headingley, Leeds, on Tuesday.
The rout was not unexpected. Brazil were only playing their third international, and their second since qualifying in 2018. Some of their squad had never played the sport a year ago.
In the circumstances they acquitted themselves well under Australian coach Paul Grundy with Natalia Momberg's try on the hour-mark the highlight.
Nevertheless England could, and should, have beaten their record score, 72-0 against Russia in 2008.
"Cricket hat-tricks and rugby hat-tricks, that's what we like, it was a really enjoyable day," said Winfield-Hill, who was made player of the match.
"It was an incredibly special day, not so much for the tries but my family have come from Australia and this is really special for me today," added Winfield-Hill, who played for the Roosters in the NRL Nines in 2020.
"Sometimes it is just look up and go and trust those skinny legs will get me there," she said of her tries."
England needed just 94 seconds to cross for their first try, Caitlin Beevers going over in the corner after a Brazilian knock-on.
Tara-Jane Stanley doubled the lead before Winfield-Hill burst through three tackles to cross. The Queenslander followed that up by going through again to score under the posts.
Prop Grace Field then scored with her first involvement as England went to the break 34-0 up.
As England punished their tiring opponents Winfield-Hill and Amy Hardcastle both completed hat-tricks.
"There were some yucky patches at times, we'll try to tidy that up, but I think we can take a lot from it," added Winfield-Hill.
Papua New Guinea and Canada make up Pool A. Australia are in Pool B with the Cook Islands, who they play on Wednesday, New Zealand and France.
