Orchids make history as they brush past Brazil

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Papua New Guinea Women v Brazil Women

The Papua New Guinea Orchids have made history by securing their place in the Women's Rugby League World Cup semi-finals for the first time after downing Brazil by 70-0 in Hull this afternoon.

It was an ominous start from the Orchids who knew that a victory would assure them of a historic semi-final birth and was hell-bent on making sure they did it in a convincing fashion. The scoring began inside the first five minutes of play when Belinda Gwasamun crossed for the first of her four tries when she collected a lovely offload from Shirley Joe to touch down for PNG. Nine minutes later, Tara Moxon crossed for the Orchids second try when she finished off a beautiful movement down the right-hand side. 

Things were going from bad to worse for Brazil when just five minutes later, a wayward pass was intercepted by Anika Butler and it was 12-0 (all three Orchids tries were unconverted). Brazil seemed to get the message and tidied their play up and as a result, they only conceded one more try prior to halftime. Gwasamun was able to cross for her second when she broke through the defence off a scrum movement and the Orchids had an 18-0 lead at half-time with goal-kicker Lilah Malabag finally securing her first conversion of the contest.

The second half was when things went up a gear for the PNG Orchids. The signs were menacing when rampaging Dragons forward Elsie Albert went straight through the middle of the Brazillian defence to charge over for PNG's fifth try of the contest. Off the ensuing set, lock forward Jessikah Reeves broke through and fooled the fullback Adriana Felix to race away to cross for PNG. The Orchids halves got in on the action in the next set of six when five-eighth Sera Koroi caught that Brazillian defence asleep at the line and it was 36-0 with just under half an hour to play.

Gwasamun completed her hattrick soon after as the Orchids shifted play to the left-hand side. From there, it was put on the toe by Malabag and the hat trick hero was able to win the race for the football. Down the right of the ground, it was very much the same song sheet, as clever football saw the Orchids link up with Moxon to cross for her second of the evening. Not content with a hat trick, Gwasamun crossed for her fourth just on the hour mark when she busted through the Brazillian defence to cross. 

After a brief defensive resistance, Brazil were out on their feet and unfortunately, the Orchids weren't in a forgiving mood tonight as they ran in four tries in the last fifteen minutes of play. First, Joe was able to score when Therese Aiton was able to create some second-phase play which allowed Joe to stroll through a yawning gap. Three minutes later, impressive fullback Martha Molowia joined the scorers' list when she received a pass from Joe to stroll over in the right corner. Goal kicker Malabag wanted to get in on the action, adding a try to her 7 goals from 14 attempts, before the experienced Aiton crossed to bring up the 70 point mark.