Rugby World Club Challenge 2015: Daily Scores, Results and Reaction
The elite of the rugby league world collided on Sunday as Super League champions St. Helens were crushed by the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the 2015 World Club Challenge.
The Aussies won the match 39-0, with the English side unable to make an impact in the match against superior opposition.
In a new format of the competition, St. George Illawarra Dragons and the Brisbane Broncos also made their way to England, triumphing over Warrington Wolves and Wigan Warriors, respectively.
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Here are the results and reactions from all of the matches:
St Helens 0-39 South Sydney Ribbitohs
South Sydney made it a hat-trick of wins for Australia as they destroyed St Helens and claimed the title of the world's best rugby league team.
The club are owned by Russell Crowe, and the actor gave up a night at the Oscars to watch his side play some incredible rugby in England.
The Aussies dominated proceedings from start to finish, and deservedly rampaged over a helpless St Helens.
The visitors ran over seven tries with Glenn Stewart, Dylan Walker, Greg Inglis, Luke Keary and Chris McQueen touching down and Joel Reddy scoring twice.
St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham was gracious in defeat, and conceded the gulf in class between the two sides was too large, per Aaron Bower of The Guardian:
"We just got schooled by the best club side in the world. Sometimes you’ve got to lose in a big fashion to learn big lessons, and this will be a good education for my players, particularly the younger ones who were out there.
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South Sydney were commended for their overall conduct and brilliance from all quarters, with Sky Sports' Stephen Owen and celebrity St Helens supporter Johnny Vegas leading the praise:
It was a tough day for the Super League champions and proved the current dominance of the Australian code.
St Helens had no tangible reply despite home advantage, and Crowe's team always looked likely of racking up a huge score.
Wigan Warriors 12-14 Brisbane Broncos
The DW Stadium was treated to a golden-point victory for the Brisbane Broncos on Saturday as the visitors struck first in extra time to clinch a high-octane win over Wigan Warriors.
The 2013 Super League champions forced extra time but came out second-best as Corey Parker slotted a penalty at the second attempt following Anthony Gelling's illegal charge-down to win the tie. Brisbane Broncos highlighted the win via Twitter:
Andrew McCullough and Lachlan Maranta crossed for tries either side of half-time to give Brisbane Broncos a 12-6 lead over the Warriors until Joe Burgess' length-of-the-field, last-minute score pulled the teams level at 12-12.
The two teams ran it close throughout the fixture and went at the break tied at 6-6 after Liam Farrell scored his first try of the season to cancel out McCullough's score, per Wide World of Sports:
However, Brisbane turned out to be the superior outfit when it came to quelling the threat of their opponent, with Warriors star Josh Charnley among those to get barely a sniff of scoring.
Even the stars of rugby union had no choice but to take notice as ex-England centre Will Greenwood tweeted his appreciation of the Broncos' stellar defence:
That stinginess out of possession came to play a huge role in the Australians' triumph as Wigan simply couldn't carve out a significant selection of chances in the second half.
Warrington Wolves 12-18 St. George Illawarra Dragons
The English hosts got off to an unsavoury start on Friday evening as Warrington Wolves were the first to fall against their Australian guests, succumbing 18-12 to St. George Illawarra Dragons.
The Super League outfit trailed by just two points at the interval after tries from Gareth O'Brien and Ryan Atkins were enough to keep them within touching distance of the Dragons.
However, Josh Dugan crossed over in the second period to build on the first-half scores of Tyson Frizell and Joel Thompson after O'Brien had levelled the scoring with a penalty in the second period.
Dugan was named man of the match for his game-changing efforts and spoke to Heath Lestrange of the Dragons' official website following the result, hailing it a fantastic win:
"Yeah, it was a pretty tough game; Warrington's always going to be tough, and we came out, did well and completed out sets. It took a a little bit of getting used for our boys, but we came out on put a show on tonight."
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