Key posts
Valentine’s day
There’s Australia’s first. It’s Valentine Holmes surging onto a Daly Cherry-Evans crossfield kick to score inside the opening eight minutes. Italy backed themselves to run on the last and were shut down by Murray Taulagi, allowing the Kangaroos to start a set close to the halfway line. The Australians made the Italians pay.
And Nathan Cleary has missed the kick right next to the posts. He won’t be thrilled with that.
Australia 4-0 after nine minutes
Italy show their hand
The Italians have shown their hand early. They’re going to try to catch defenders napping on the edges, because they know there is no chance they’re beating the Australians through the middle. Italy will be made to work it out of their own end all night.
How they’ve fared
Australia are the tournament favourites and their opening results have shown why with a 42-8 win over Fiji and an 84-0 triumph over Scotland. Italy, on the other hand, beat Scotland 28-4 before losing 60-4 against Fiji.
We’re underway
The anthems have been sung, and now it’s time to get this clash underway between Australia and Italy. The bookies say it’s a fait accompli, but just what kind of score can the Kangaroos rack up here? In case you missed it, England put 94 on Greece this morning.
James Tedesco of Australia and Nathan Brown of Italy pose for a photo alongside the National Lottery Winner ahead of the Rugby League World Cup game.Credit:Getty
Big Mal and me: The bond that is inspiring Latrell to global domination
Latrell Mitchell can’t help but marvel at Mal Meninga’s international legacy as he walks the streets of Manchester, rugby league’s biggest personality surprisingly small fry in a nation of 56 million.
“He walks down the street and everyone wants a photo with him!” Mitchell says. “I get one or two Aussies here and there, and that’s it.”
Mitchell appreciates the relative peace and quiet after a year of headlines and hype no one else in the game can generate. But with a pair of premierships, NSW Origin series wins and nearing 150 NRL games all before his 26th birthday, Mitchell has a daily reminder of the glaring gap in his rugby league resume – largely through no fault of his own.
The Kangaroos team room at their hotel has been transformed into a mini museum of sorts, with an honour roll acknowledging the green and gold greats of the past and what it takes to join them. Mitchell, with five Tests to his name, wants in.
How close can Italy get? Have your say
Inside the rooms
Take a look inside the rooms during the calm before the storm.
Australia’s room.Credit:Getty
Italy’s room.Credit:Getty
‘Hanging by the tendon’: How crash turned Harry into a hooker
Harry Grant still has the zipper running the length of his right shin, but there is a silver lining to the scar from the flipped all-terrain vehicle accident that left his leg “hanging on by the tendon”.
Grant is emerging as a genuine strike weapon in Australia’s World Cup defence, be it as a starting hooker or bench back-up for Ben Hunt.
Long before Grant could consider rugby league as a career, the game was taken away from him as a teenager. First by a staph infection and several shoulder operations at age 12 that at one point had doctors fearing the worst.
Then by the ATV crash that required a series of pins and screws being drilled into his fractured leg, which was held together by a frame of clamps for weeks.
“We crashed one of the surf-lifesaving ATVs on the beach,” Grant says as he pulls down his sock to show the dints and scar left by the accident.
Tedesco then and now
James Tedesco scores for Italy against Wales at the 2013 World Cup in Cardiff.Credit:Getty
James Tedesco enjoyed a solid win in his first outing as Australian captainCredit:Getty Images
The Italian job: How a flower stall and £20 allowance launched Aussie skipper
From setting up flower stalls with his grandfather at 2am, to a £20 daily allowance and now his mantle as Australian captain and arguably the game’s best player.
James Tedesco has always worn his Italian heritage loud and proud, and his Azzurri influence will come full circle when he leads the Kangaroos against the minnows he credits with launching his rugby league career.
Tedesco’s first World Cup almost a decade ago saw he and Italian teammates, including Anthony and Mark Minichiello and new Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo, paid a £20 allowance during the 2013 tournament in England.
two premierships, a Dally M medal, 19 Origins and a million-dollar deal later, Tedesco still looks back on that initial Italian outing as his making.
