Latrell Mitchell puts on box office performance against Italy

Kangaroo centre Latrell Mitchell turned on a box office performance as Australia crushed Italy 66-6 to finish unbeaten in its Group B Rugby League World Cup pool at St Helen’s in the UK this morning.

Despite committing too many unforced errors against a plucky Italian side, Australia ran in 12 tries to march into a sudden-death quarter-final, probably against Lebanon, with a 150-14 aggregate.

Mitchell set up two tries for Cowboys winger Murray Taulagi (11th and 39th) and also crossed for his own four-pointer in the 34th minute scattering three Italian defenders in the process.

He delivered a magical back-handed pass for Taulagi’s second try after he was swamped by defenders.

Italy, who tried hard but were outclassed as expected, were eventually rewarded for their tireless efforts when half Radean Robinson grubbered in behind the line for Ronny Palumbo to pounce on a grubber kicked with a skilful one-handed grounding, making the score 42-6 with 25 minutes remaining.

Coach Mal Meninga would have been reasonably satisfied with his team’s performance but still faces a few selection headaches before settling on his best 17-man squad.

Halfback Nathan Clearly controlled the game while Daly Cherry-Evans was effective on the left side featuring in four tries.

Cleary though would appear to have an edge in the battle for the Kangaroo’s Number 7 jumper.

Meninga pulled his star attacker James Tedesco out of the action early in the second half with Mitchell dropping back to fullback for most of the second half.

Valentine Holmes scored the first of Australia’s dozen tries leaping high over two Italian defenders to pull down a Cherry-Evans cross-field bomb before Taulagi’s first try.

Cleary uncharacteristically missed his first two conversion attempts before finishing with 9-12 with the boot, taking his World Cup tally to 21-27.

Among Australia’s best were Reuben Cotter, Lindsay Collins, who celebrated his debut with a try in the 79th minute, and Jerimiah Nanai, close the best player on the field.

Not far behind them were Mitchell, Cleary, Taulagi, Liam Martin, Campbell Graham, Cam Murray and Tedesco before he was replaced after running 180 metres in the first half.

Earlier in the day hosts England threatened to rack up the magical 100 points against Greece before a 94-4 win to remain unbeaten in their pool.

England ran in 17 tries and now loom as a real chance to play Australia or New Zealand in the final later this month.

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