Hireme propels NZ into final
SYDNEY: Honey Hireme has fired New Zealand into the Women’s Rugby League World Cup final and copped a rocket from coach Tony Benson in the process.
As she has been all tournament, the Kiwi Ferns outside back was the chief destroyer in their 524 romp over England in Sydney yesterday, crossing for three tries.
However, she earned the ire of her coach after twice handing the ball off to a teammate as the tryline was open and begging.
After bagging six tries against the Cook Islands, dual international Hireme took her tournament tally to 11 at Southern Cross Group Stadium.
In an unselfish and obvious attempt to deflect attention from herself, she allowed a teammate to score when all she needed to do was plant the ball over the line.
First, in the 67th minute, the Kiwi Ferns created space on the left edge and Hireme looked certain to score. However, she passed it to Hilda Peters, despite having the line wide open in front of her.
Then, with the final play of the game, she broke through five tackles and was in the ingoal but handed the ball off to skipper Laura Mariu.
Benson was not happy his charge had taken such a risk and promised she would have it drummed out of her.
‘‘I can understand what she was doing but as a coach I’m not happy about it,’’ Benson said.
‘‘We just want to get the ball under the posts and get that kick [conversion]. Every try is valuable. That won’t happen again.’’
The English were still in the hunt down 144 at halftime thanks to a TaraJane Stanley fourpointer in the 22nd minute.
Hireme — nicknamed ‘‘Honey Bill’’ — had a mixed first half but put her stamp on the match after the break, strolling over in the left corner six minutes after the resumption.
She charged over for a second in the 57th minute to take the game out of England’s hands at 284 before she put the icing on the cake with a powerful run to grab her third in the 78th.
After a mixed showing in the 368 win over Papua New Guinea last week, Benson was happy with the threetime champion’s performance heading into Saturday’s final but emphasised they still needed more improvement.
England centre Jessica Courtman was taken to hospital after suffering a neck injury in one of the last plays of the game.
Meanwhile, Australia has warmed up for the final with a 586 thrashing of Canada yesterday.
As expected, the reigning champion advanced past the vastly inexperienced Ravens in the semifinal to set up a clash with New Zealand in the tournament decider.
The Jillaroos did take their foot off the pedal in the second half with a number of silly mistakes and penalties allowing Canada to score a surprise try.
Once fiveeighth Ali Brigginshaw opened the scoring in just the second minute, it was largely oneway traffic for Brad Donald’s side.
After beating the Ravens 880 in their pool clash just four days earlier, the Jillaroos were never expected to be troubled, but were at times wasteful. — NZN