Australia defeat Fiji at rain-lashed Langtree Park

It really was a case of sod's law that the autumn's worst, windiest and wettest weather descended on the north west for Saints' and St Helens' big World Cup night.

The awful conditions did not deter that many fans with a 14,000 plus gate creating a good atmosphere without the ground ever bouncing.

Of course, this was not a Kiwi v Samoa scenario from last Sunday. There was no way that the Australians were going to let the islanders get the remotest of toe-holds in this game and as such there was nothing to really spark the cold, wet crowd into life.

Aussie coach Tim Sheens had said on Friday that the aim was to win the game by defence - and so they did with the Fijians only getting one sniff of the grass on the other side of the whitewash with the video ref adjudging the ball, however tantalisingly close, had not touched the green stuff.

The weather was awful - swirling wind, driving rain - so much so Fiji skipper joked that he thought they were going to bring hot water bottles on at the scrums.

Australia played the conditions much better - and as the game wore on their clinical short passing game from Cameron Smith, Daly Cerry-Evans and Johnathan Thurston began to pick holes in an otherwise robust Fijian line.

Although the green and gold machine scored at regular intervals after Alipate Noilea had slotted a sixth-minute penalty.

Australia hit the front on 16 minutes when debutant Josh Papalii collected Cherry-Evans pass to slide over, with Jonathan Thurston goaling.

Four minutes later Greg Inglis, operating at full back brushed off a would be tackler to create room for Darius Boyd to increase the lead.

Luke Lewis and Inglis combined to send Michael Jennings over with Thurston convert from wide out despite the awful conditions.

Four minutes after the break Cherry-Evans' perfect kick wide found Hayne - who held it up send Morris in at the corner.

That essentially slammed the door shut on any faint chance the underdogs had of making a serious contest of it.

And when James Tamou powered down the middle, Cherry-Evans was left with a straightforward  run to the line. Thurston added another goal.

Fiji had their near miss on 62 minutes before Luke Lewis wrapped it up after backing up Inglis' powerful surge.

Alas for Lewis, he soon left the field with a dislocated shoulder, after sliding into an advertising hoarding.

Although the shoulder was put back in afterwards in the dressing room, Lewis has been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament.
But that was the only dampener for the Roos.
The conditions made it an uncomfortable night's viewing for the spectators not used to the harshness of winter rugby.

But the players coped with it admirably but it did take some of the possible flamboyance out of the game.