Australia delivered the most accomplished display of their European campaign, roaring back from a half-time deficit to blow away Scotland 30-10 and end a six-match losing streak.
After defeats to world champions England and France in successive weekends, the Wallaroos marked Michaela Leonard’s historic 50th Test with a second-half display of power and precision in Edinburgh.
Second-half resurgence
Down 10-5 at the break, Australia, who hadn’t won a Test all season, conjured up their best form, scoring three well-worked tries in the space of eight minutes and going on to rack up 25 unanswered points to dominate their WXV Global Series clash at Hive Stadium, next door to Murrayfield.
It proved a landmark day for two standouts, with the 31-year-old lock Leonard becoming the first Wallaroo ever to win a half-century of caps and Desiree Miller scoring their opening try six minutes before the break to rack up 100 Test points.
Captain’s rallying cry
The 24-year-old Sydney speedster’s try still wasn’t enough to drag Australia back on to level terms as the No 8 Evie Gallagher’s 15th minute score, plus a conversion and penalty from Helen Nelson, gave the hosts the interval advantage. The Wallaroos’ post-break resurgence was then stimulated by the captain, Siokapesi Palu, and an inspiring rallying cry to her team at half-time.
“The atmosphere was crazy. Going into half-time, the girls knew we had to take it up a notch just to compete with Scotland,” said Australia’s player-of-the-match, Faitala Moleka.
“They’re a physical team and they were just pumping us at the rucks, but there was a massive mindset shift from the girls, and after a speech from our captain, we came out determined and got that win.”
Ruthless finish
The comeback started in the 50th minute when a powerful rolling maul from the visitors was cynically brought down just before the line by Gallagher. Sam Wood snapped up the ball to burrow over for the score, while Scotland suffered the double whammy of their star forward then being sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes.
Australia had failed dismally to capitalise on a plethora of French yellow and red cards the previous week but this time they were ruthless as tries from Brianna Hoy and Moleka quickly followed.
The loosehead prop Hoy even offered a delightful hint of a dummy before she ploughed over while Miller was electric from the restart, setting up a counterattack from their own 22 before Moleka provided the robust finish.
Wood sealed the victory with a couple of penalties, courtesy of Australia’s scrum domination in worsening conditions, as the visitors maintained their 100% record against Scotland, who’ll face the Wallaroos in return fixtures in Sydney and Canberra next month.
“The girls have certainly been progressing in our performance week to week, so it’s a really pleasing way to finish,” said the assistant coach Mike Ruthven.
