Rugby story by Brian Watters, Mon, 21 Nov 2005 14:48:02 GMT


Australia ejected Great Britain out of the Tri-Nations with a 26-14 win after the latter's a jaded performance at Hull's KC Stadium on Saturday.

Tries from Mark O'Meley, Matt Cooper, Brent Tate and Mark Gasnier saw the Kangaroos romp home, in addition to Craig Fitzgibbon 10 points with the boot.

On a nippy night in Hull, the home side failed to discover the touch they had displayed against New Zealand last week. They were also guilty of a string of handling mistakes particularly by Stuart Fielden and Petero Civoniceva which gave Australia the possession.

As expected, to win a match by three points, Great Britain made changes moving Leon Pryce to full-back in place of injured Paul Wellens and introducing two Hull players, Gareth Raynor and Richard Horne, into the starting line-up. On the bench, Kevin Sinfield was put in place of Lee Gilmour.

The high point of the game was the amazing effort by Mark O'Meley 30 seconds before half-time. The ball from Anthony Minichiello's inside was whisked away using basketball skills to break the 8-8 deadlock.

It was battle of nerves which was lost by the Brits. Great Britain coach endorsed as much when he said: “They handled the pressure better and we have got to take it on the chin.”

The encouragement given in the start t by Stuart Fielden, Keiron Cunningham and Adrian Morley came to naught which once again exposed Britain's lack of penetration at centre, though Great Britain settled the quicker and took the lead after 11 minutes.

But Fielden, who was immaculate in the previous games, couldn't save his best for the last. He fumbled to put Australia on the attack and an offside penalty allowed Craig Fitzgibbon to level the scores. Gower was outjumped by Matt King and the ball bounced into the arms of Matt Cooper for a try which Fitzgibbon duly converted.

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