Australia dominate and decimate Papua New Guinea

In front of a disappointing Parramatta Stadium crowd, Australia opened their Four Nations campaign by emphatically defeating the Papua New Guinea side 42-0.

In slippery conditions, Australia did not take a long to assert their dominance over Papua New Guinea, it took only 5 minutes for the Kangaroos to put the first points on the board and put five tries on in the opening half.

The first half saw tries to Billy Slater in the fifth minute, Brent Tate in the fifteenth minute,  Cooper Cronk in the eighteenth minute, Willie Tonga in the twenty first and Brett Morris in the 25th. 

Cameron Smith finished the first half with 3/5 off the boot, Kumuls did not to concede any more points in the last 15 minutes of the half, Australia finishing the first 40 with a 26-0 lead.

It took another 15 minutes of the second half before any more points were scored.  But the referee was kept busy with a plethora of penalties and errors keeping the whistle blowing.

First points of the second half went to Cameron Smith who then converted his own try, pushing the Australian lead to insurmountable for the Kumuls.

Australia were not done however, in the 60th minute Australian Skipper Darren Lockyer added another record to his already impressive tally scoring his 34th try in the green and gold making him the number one try scorer for the Kangaroos.

The last try of the match came in the 74th minute to Willie Tonga, Smith failed to convert, finishing the game with 5/8 conversions.  Australia finished the match with a 42 - 0 victory.

Match Details
Australia 42 defeated Papua New Guinea 0
International - Four Nations: Week One - Sunday October 24, 2010 4:00pm
Venue: Parramatta Stadium
Referee: Shane Rehm (NZ)
Video Referee: Steve Clark (AU)
Touch Judges: Gerard Sutton (AU) and James Child (ENG)
Crowd: 11,308
Halftime: Australia 26 Papua New Guinea 0

Leagueunlimited.com players of the match:
3 Points - Billy Slater (1 Try)
2 Points - Cameron Smith (1 Try, 5 Conversions)
1 Point - Sam Thaiday

AUSTRALIA (42)
Tries: Billy Slater, Brett Morris, Darren Lockyer, Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk, Brent Tate, Willie Tonga (2)
Conversions: Cameron Smith (5/8)

PAPUA NEW GUINEA (0)

LeagueUnlimited.com Live Commentary Welcome to Parramatta Stadium for the second game of the 2010 Four nations series. Australia and Papua New Guinea open their Four Nations campaigns here.

No team news to report, both sides will run out as per program.

In the curtain raiser between Samoa and Tonga this afternoon, Samoa came out 22 to 6 victors.
Overcast conditions here at Parramatta Stadium as both sides run onto the wet surface for the national anthems.
1 min: Referee Shane Rehm blows time on, Cameron Smith kicks off for Australia and we are underway.
1 min: Strong set from the Kumuls forces Australia to begin their opening ten metres out from their line.
2 min: PENALTY against the Kumuls on the fifth tackle for a second dip, gives the Australians a chance for an attacking set after finishing that one ten metres shy of half way.
VIDEO REFEREE for a possible AUSTRALIAN TRY
3 min: NO TRY, Slater had no downward pressure on the ball. 20 metre restart for Papua New Guinea.
4 min: Kumuls drop the ball about 30 metres from their line, inviting Australia in.
VIDEO REFEREE for a possible AUSTRALIA TRY.
6 min: TRY
TRY to Australia, Billy the kid again, this time video referee Steve Clark was checking the on side, and he is behind the kicker. Cameron Smith makes no mistake with the boot.
Australia 6-0
7 min: PENALTY against Papua New Guinea, Australia getting all the possession and great field position early.
8 min: Disappointing kick from Cronk to end that set, and Papua New Guinea finally get some more ball.
9 min: PENALTY against Australia, could have been a chance for the Kumuls, but Papua New Guinea fail to find touch.
10 min: Darren Lockyer gets crunched in a big hit. looks like he could be in a bit of trouble getting hit in the rib, but he gets back up.
12 min: PENALTY to Australia, attacking here, 20 metres out from the Papua New Guinea line.
13 min: Australia knock on ten metres out to let the Kumuls off the hook.
14 min: Mistake made in the scrum and Australia right back on the attack.
16 min: TRY
TRY to Australia. Slater finds Tate who dives in under 3 defenders to score. Cameron Smith converts from the sideline to put Australia two converted tries ahead.
Australia 10-0
19 min: TRY
TRY to Australia after an unbelievable sequence of events, Cronk puts a kick down field and chases it down, plucking it out of Tongia's reach who trying to avoid a 40/20 ends up conceding a try on the sideline. Conversion from Cameron Smith unsuccessful.
Australia 16-0
20 min: Papua New Guinea recovering from that Cronk do a much better job cleaning up this kick toward the in goal.
22 min: TRY
TRY to Australia. A bad miss by Papua New Guinea winger Riyong gifts Willie Tonga a soft try. Tonga picks it up, spins around and plants it down. Conversion from Cameron Smith unsuccessful.
Australia 20-0
24 min: PENALTY against Papua New Guinea who are really doing it tough out here, have to defend theit line again with this penalty coming about ten metres out.
25 min: Papua New Guinea knock on a short kick from Billy Slater, and Australia get anoth set right on the the PNG line.
26 min: TRY
TRY to Australia. Billy Slater pops the ball up from dummy half to Lockyer who passes to Tate, who gets it onto Morris to score. Cameron Smith from his favoured side converts it from the sideline.
Australia 26-0
27 min: Kangaroos absolute schooling the Kumuls here.
29 min: KNOCK ON against the Kumuls, awards Australia a scrum ten metres out from the PNG line.
Apologies for the delay, we were having some technical difficulties.
30 min: Kumuls let off the hook by an Australia knock on, but they are running it out from their line
31 min: Disappointing end to the set, Kumuls forced to handover, being tackled n the sixth
32 min: Australia attacking the PNG line, Tongia cleans it up before being met my defence forcing a line drop out
33 min: Knock on both ways, Australia ruled the first, so Kumuls get the scrum.
34 min: Better set from the Kumuls, who are looking better now that we are getting nearer to the interval.
35 min: Attacking oppotunity for Papua New Guinea after Australia knock on handing the ball over 10 metres Autralia's side of half way.
36 min: Billy Slater cleans up and Papua New Guinea's opportunity comes to nothing.
38 min: PENALTY against the Kumuls giving Australia what should be their last shot at the Papua New Guinea line.
39 min: Knock on by Australia, letting the visitors off the hook.
40 min: And that is the half, after conceding 5 tries in the first 25 minutes, Papua New Guinea mananged to keep Australia out in the 15 leading to the break.
41 min: Ryan Tongia boots the second half into action.
42 min: Referee Shane Rehm not giving Papua New Guinea any repreive finds an error.
43 min: Kumuls compund the error by conceding a penalty, piggy backing Australia down field.
44 min: PENALTY againt Papua New Guinea's Nickson Kolo for a swinging arm, Australia attacking from 20 metres out here.
45 min: Tiquiri dives over the line, but gets called back, after receiving a forward pass.
46 min: Australia with sustained attack on the Papua New Guinea line.
47 min: Tongia cleans up, Papua New Guinea doing a good job holding out at this stage.
49 min: Scrum to the Kumuls after some untidiness from Australia.
50 min: Kumuls looked to be on the attack before knocking on.
51 min: Plenty of errors happening here, but Kumuls getting some possession in good field position.
51 min: PENALTY to the Kumuls gives them their first set starting in the Australian 20.
52 min: Forward pass call comes from the sideline denying the Kumuls what chance they had a the Australian line.
53 min: Papua New Guinea with the weight of possession this half, lets see if they can convert it to points.
54 min: Griffin ruled to have knoocked on at dummy half, gifting Australia a shot at the PNG line.
56 min: TRY
TRY to Australia. Kumuls being really punished for the error here as Cameron Smith muscles over defenders to open the scoring for the half, then convert his own try.
Australia 32-0
57 min: And Kumuls fail to find touch to invite the Kangaroos to have another shot at the line.
58 min: Cover defence cleans up, but hands Australia another attacking set with the line drop out.
60 min: TRY
TRY to the Kangaroos. Darren Lockyer breaks Ken Irvine's record for the most Australian tries scoring his 34th in the green and gold. Conversion from Cameron Smith successful.
Australia 38-0
62 min: Kumuls do well to get Brett Morris out the sideline, but referee Rehm calls a penalty for the tackle and Australia are attacking from ten out.
64 min: Paul Gallen dives for a try but knocks it on.
65 min: Another knock on from the Kumuls
66 min: Possession going back and forth here, noone can hold onto a ball.
68 min: Slater puts on some theatrics sliding about ten metres in the wet to take a great catch.
70 min: Another knock on from the Kumuls, these errors are partly due to th weather, but poor ball handling seems to be the order of the day.
72 min: Aside from offering the referee reason to blow his whistle every forty seconds, neither team is offering me an awful lot to report on at this stage.
72 min: Aside from offering the referee reason to blow his whistle every forty seconds, neither team is offering me an awful lot to report on.
VIDEO REFEREE for a possible Australian try
74 min: NO TRY knock on ruled against Willie tonga.
77 min: TRY
TRY to Australia. After being denied minutes ago, Cronk finds Tonga in open space, to give him a try that neds no deliberation. Conversion from Cameron Smith unsuccessful.
Australia 42-0
78 min: PENALTY against the Kumuls giving Australia their last attacking set.
79 min: A bit of biff as frustration seeps into Papua New Guinea, as their captain Paul Aiton has a push at Tom Learoyd-Lahrs.
80 min: Papua New Guinea finally get a repreive, this from the full time hooter which blows to end their misery and the game.