Australia’s women have opened their SVNS Series campaign in Perth with a statement win as they thrashed Great Britain 54-5 as the two-day rugby festival got underway at HBF Park.
After ceding the opening try of the game, Australia piled on 54 unanswered points despite stars Madison Ashby and the Levi sisters all starting on the bench.
Heidi Dennis grabbed a hat-trick as Australia began their Perth gold medal defence with a sizzling performance in the sun.
After a disappointing gold medal match defeat to New Zealand in Singapore last week, Dennis said being back on home soil had spurred them on.
“Knowing all of our friends and family are out there watching us and made the journey over, makes it that much better,” Dennis said.
“It was a rough one in Singapore. But, that’s footy, we have to move on and go on to the next. It was really important to get out there and start strong. We didn’t get the try first, but came back strong at the end.”
After Katie Shillaker had opened the scoring for the Brits, it was one-way traffic the rest of the way after Mackenzie Davis took captain Isabella Nasser’s offload to the house to make it 7-5.
Faith Nathan juked Shillaker almost out of her boots en route to a superb solo try, before Dennis got her first and Sariah Paki added another to give Australia a 28-5 lead at the mid-way point.
Nasser got in on the act almost immediately after the restart, and then Dennis added two more to complete her treble, before Maddison Levi was given an inch and typically took a mile to rub salt into the wound.
