London: Reece Walsh lit up London, repaying the faith of coach Kevin Walters in a sublime Test debut to lead Australia to a 26-6 victory and a 1-0 lead in the Ashes series.
The premiership-winner scored two tries, saved two tries and had the 60,812 fans at Wembley Stadium on its feet on a number of occasions in a man-of-the-match performance, justifying the decision to leave incumbent Kangaroos fullback Dylan Edwards on the sideline for the opening Test of the three-game series.
Reece Walsh performs the swan dive as he crossed for the first of two tries at Wembley Stadium. Credit: Getty
Walsh and Roosters backrower Angus Crichton, who also scored two tries, were arguably the best two players on the field.
They were aided by the controlling performance of hooker Harry Grant, who had to step up and captain the side in the absence of Isaah Yeo due to an early concussion that is likely to rule him out of the next game.
The Australians head to Liverpool for the second Test in the box seat to claim the country’s 14th consecutive Ashes series and its first since the last series in 2003.
It was an error-riddled game that hardly had the Wembley Stadium engaged, but it was expected from a group of players that between them haven’t played much football in their respective competition’s over the past month.
Walsh was on fire in his debut.Credit: Getty
Walsh started and finished the Kangaroos opening try of the game in the 18th minute.
The Broncos No.1 threw a cut-out pass that put Mark Nawaqanitawase into open space, with the Roosters winger drawing the fullback to then put Walsh over for his first Kangaroos try on debut – swan dive and all.
