Australia's rugby women have given England's world champions a run for their money by leading sensationally at halftime -- but the Wallaroos' dream of downing the seemingly invincible Red Roses inevitably crumbled as they ended up succumbing to a heavy 48-15 defeat in Salford.
England were stunned in the first 40 minutes of their WXV Global Series opener at the CorpAcq Stadium on Saturday (Sunday AEST) as the Australians went in to the break with a 10-5 lead but any outlandish hopes of handing the hosts their first defeat after 38 straight victories was, almost inevitably, buried after the break.
The John Mitchell-coached world champs, initially rusty in their first outing since being crowned European grand slam champions in May and struggling to adapt to the new smaller 4.5 ball being trialled, ran in eight tries in total as their set-piece finally began to tick over to their normal high efficiency.
