A fine captain’s knock by Australia’s Bayley McKenna helped the Wheelaroos overwhelm Tasman rivals New Zealand 102-14, while France seem determined to reverse their runners-up finish from the last World Cup.

McKenna’s quick thinking, crisp passing and accurate goal-kicking contributed to his personal tally of 44 points. He was Australia’s top try scorer with four and landed 14 goals from 15 attempts, which all helped in being awarded Player of the Match.

The French fell agonisingly short to England in 2022 losing 28-24 but have started their 2026 campaign with a fair bit of spice 114-0 over Scotland scoring 20 tries.

France whacked the Scots 80-15 in their pool game at the 2022 World Cup and today they reached that total with 30 minutes still left on the clock.  

They are two-time winners of the World Cup and could be heading for a third.

Pool B: Australia def. New Zealand 102-14

The kick-through by Diab Karim and McKenna became a valuable Australian tactic leading to four tries from the eight scored in the opening half, for a 48-10 lead.

The Wheel Kiwis scored two late tries to Nikia Fa’atau and Pele Sulusi to give New Zealand fans some hope.

But although they scored early in the second half through Fa’atau once more, the Wheelaroos were in a mood and added 10 tries of their own.

“We’ve put in a lot of work at training so it’s nice to see the boys click together so well in an actual match,” said Daniel Anstey, who scored a hat-trick today.

“There’s still a bit to work on like eliminating unforced errors but overall it’s pleasing.

“We do like to put a kick in as we’re a pretty quick team and tonight we were lucky with the bounce.”

As for McKenna’s leadership, Anstey said the energy he brought was infectious.

“He has a certain swagger Bayley and we all like to get off the back of that,” he said.

Another three-try hero in Adam Tannock said the Wheelaroos aim to develop a unique style.

“I’d like to think we play a lot different to other teams in the competition as we like playing on the fly,” Tannock said.

“We saw a bit of that tonight with around-the-corner flicks, cut-out passes, kicks for our speedsters but we can still rely on our structure when we have to.”

The brutal nature of the sport was on show throughout the game. Tannock broke his right index finger while NZ’s Fa’atau left the court with a blood-soaked towel on his head after catching the wheel spokes of a defender’s chair in a tackle.

“I’ll strap the finger tonight, ice it to try and get the swelling out so I can get to training tomorrow,” Tannock said.

Next up is Scotland on Tuesday.

Pool B: France def. Scotland 114-0

It was a savage defeat but the crowd was with the Scots.

When they crossed in the 60th minute – down 98-0 - a huge cheer went up inside the WIN Entertainment Centre.

But the Thistles lost the ball over the line, with the crowd quick to issue a few well-meaning boos when officials denied the Scots a maiden try.

Scotland’s worst defeat in wheelchair rugby league was in July 2013, to the French ironically, 154-2.

France proved again how well-connected and up-tempo they can play with plenty of speed and power.

The Hivernat brothers certainly put on a family show in the first half of the match.

Older sibling Jonathan scored four tries and Leo Hivernat converted three of them. Then it was Leo’s turn to get amongst the four-pointers.

He scored France’s 10th try in the shadows of halftime and up stepped Jonathan to convert it.

Their point-scoring powers helped the French to a 62-0 halftime lead, from which Scotland were never able to recover.

In fact over the full 80 minutes, the Hivernats contributed a combined tally of 58 points from eight tries and 13 goals.

But Player of the Match honours went to centre Jeremy Bourson for his seven tries and two goals.

It will be interesting to see if things move as smoothly in Round 2 on Tuesday, when France take on newcomers New Zealand.