This weekend saw an impressive New Zealand side beat a strong Australian team to win the final of the Rugby League World Cup for the very first time in their history. Australia were widely expected to beat the Kiwis in the match.

After all, they had held the World Cup trophy since the mid-1970s and had not been defeated throughout the entire tournament. Furthermore, the opposition they were set to face in the final, New Zealand, had been heavily crushed by the Australian side earlier in the tournament. Australia’s opening game saw the Kiwis defeated 30-6.

However, although Australia led at half time, impressive play from Lance Hohaia and Benji Marshall saw New Zealand quickly open up a 22-16 lead. Adam Blair confirmed the victory after Australia made a series of unforced, and extremely uncharacteristic, errors.

The strength and aggression which ran throughout the New Zealand side proved too much for the Australians, who seemed surprised by the Kiwis’ attitude. The Australian team should have taken advantage of the early lead but the side became complacent and allowed New Zealand to grow in confidence.

The captain of New Zealand, Nathan Cayless, believed that the victory was one of the finest moments of his career. He was ecstatic that the team had managed to take advantage of some sloppy play by Australia, since he has painful experiences of being in situations where the team has failed to build on leads and good play. He revealed that the team were looking forward to celebrating the win after working so hard to achieve success.

After New Zealand thrashed and truly humiliated the English rugby league team in the semi-finals of the Rugby League World Cup, the last thing that fans of the team needed was an anxious message concerning the national side’s future from the coach of Australia, Ricky Stuart.

England rugby fans have had to watch their side suffer humbling defeats during three out of their four World Cup matches and the loss to New Zealand was only surpassed, in terms of humiliation, by the defeat at the hands of an impressive Australian team.

Ricky Stuart’s team beat England 52-4 in Melbourne and the coach has since spoken of his shock at what he has “witnessed over the past month from England”.

He believes that the international game has suffered to a large extent and the national side has been negatively impacted by the “scramble from Super League owners, coaches and managers” to look after their own interests and disregard those of the England team.

Stuart’s words echo those made by some sections of the sporting media about football in England. The Australian coach believes that the “lack of focus” on developing home-grown talent and encouraging youngsters to try the sport has resulted in the national side declining in general form and skill over the past few years.

Almost 40% of the players in the English Super League have been imported and, sadly, the coach believes that the days of the United Kingdom producing “classy, seasoned footballers" seem very long ago.

Billy Slater, the Australian full-back who currently plays for Melbourne, has been awarded the honour of being the Rugby League International Federation’s world player of the year.

The recipients of the numerous awards were chosen by the media as well as former rugby players from Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain. The rugby players in contention for the honours were judged on their performances since October of last year.

England rugby fans will be all too aware of the talent possessed by Slater, who scored a hat-trick against the national side during the recent World Cup. The full-back, who is only twenty-five years of age, also scored a hat-trick against Fiji and has been invaluable to the Australian team throughout their World Cup campaign.

The news of Slater’s success is yet another blow for English rugby fans. After watching their team stumble at the World Cup, they have now seen several English players beaten to the award by Slater. Leon Pryce, Jamie Peacock, and Rob Burrow were short-listed for the honour but it was decided that the Australian full-back’s recent efforts on the international stage deserved to be recognised.

Australian rugby fans had further cause for celebration after it was revealed that several other members of the national team had been handed awards. Israel Folau was named the Young Player of the Year and the Centre of the Year. Folau became the country’s youngest ever international earlier this year, making his debut at the age of just 18 years and 194 days.

The coach of the national Rugby League side, Tony Smith, has spoken of his embarrassment at England’s record World Cup defeat.

Defending champions Australia humbled England during the match at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne, winning 52-4. The Kangaroos managed to score an impressive total of nine tries, with Greg Inglis and Billy Slater both scoring fantastic hat-tricks.

Tony Smith has stated that England have been left feeling hurt and embarrassed and he believes the team needs to improve quickly.

Smith was quick to praise the Australian team, stating that the “speed” of their “exciting players” made a difference during the match. However, although nobody can deny the quality inherent in the Australian national side, England should simply have put in a more competent performance and should have had the ability to stem the flow of the Australian attack.

The coach believes that the team will not suffer psychologically from this potentially morale-damaging defeat. Rather, Smith believes that the match has brought the team together.

Furthermore, he was keen to point out that he had managed to take some positives from the experience. Smith was impressed by certain periods of the first half and revealed that at half-time there was a real belief in the dressing room that the match was not yet over.

Unfortunately for England fans, the players could not raise their game and Australia went on to set a record which beat the previous one set by New Zealand in the semi-finals of the 2000 tournament.

England are set to face the Kiwis at the weekend and will hope to have put their disappointment and embarrassment firmly behind them.