Rugby league-Munster shines as ruthless Australia seal Ashes win
LIVERPOOL, England :Cameron Munster pulled the strings as Australia showed their world champion pedigree to overpower England 14-4 in the second test on Saturday and clinch the Ashes rugby league series 2-0.
England, who lost the first match at Wembley 26-6, offered far stronger resistance in a ferocious first half and the game at Premier League soccer club Everton's new stadium was finely poised at 4-4.
Early second-half tries by man-of-the-match Munster and Hudson Young, however, gave Australia a 10-point cushion and they held on comfortably to win the first rugby league Ashes for 22 years.
"It has been a great game," Munster told the BBC. "England played their best, we gave it to them on a silver plate in the first half, but the scramble in defence was really good tonight.
"When you don't complete and you defend a fair bit, there is a lot of fatigue."
FRENETIC START
Australian Tino Fa'asuamaleaui and England's Dom Young were sin-binned in a frenetic start to the match before Nathan Cleary kicked a penalty to put Australia 2-0 ahead.
Harry Smith quickly levelled after a high tackle and the Kangaroos resisted a wave of English attacks before Cleary slotted over another penalty.
Australia looked likely to go into halftime ahead until Smith's kick made it 4-4 after Reece Walsh was penalised for obstruction.
England looked confident and, buoyed up by the support of another packed crowd, started the second half strongly.
Flyhalf Munster burrowed over in the left corner, however, and although Cleary's conversion struck the crossbar, the scrumhalf made amends when his deep kick bamboozled the England defence and the ball fell to forward Young who powered over the line.
Australia fullback Walsh was sin-binned for obstruction but England failed to take advantage and the visitors looked more likely to extend their lead in the closing stages.
"We got beat, some improvements," England coach Shaun Wane said. "They won the Ashes and we didn't. Really disappointing. I thought we had a hold of the game at times but it wasn't enough against a really good team. We didn't have that killer instinct."
The reality was that Australia had too much quality against a hard-working England team lacking in creativity and guile.
"It was pretty intense," Australia captain Harry Grant said. "It was pretty fiery early on. It was a scrappy first half but second half we built our game. It was electric."
Australia have now won the last 14 series since Britain’s success in 1970. The third and final test is in Leeds next Saturday.
