The Sydney Morning Herald’s Andrew Webster has voiced his concern over the recent blow out results in the Rugby League World Cup.
Australia remain unbeaten with a 66-6 thrashing of Italy whilst England and Tonga both registered 90 points in their wins over Greece and Cook Islands.
Webster said that for the top tier nations such as Australia and New Zealand, the group stages of the tournament only act as training runs rather than competitive matches.
“I am a little bit (worried),” Webster said on SEN 1170 Mornings.
“Australia has just had glorified training runs the whole tournament when you really think about it.
“I was watching the game against Italy the other morning and some of those early tries were catch and pass training drills.
“There was just a little bit more stiffness in the defence.
“I will be interested to see what happens against Lebanon in the quarter final.
“If they lap Lebanon in the quarter final like you expect them to do, they go into a semi against New Zealand pretty soft.
“When we are celebrating one Italian try like they scored an equalising try, I found it to be a bit of a doddle to be honest.”
Australia ran in 12 tries to one as Nathan Cleary and Daly Cherry-Evans were paired together for the first time.
Webster further lamented the fact that Australia is no closer to figuring out their best starting line up given coach Mal Meninga’s insistence on rotating the team against the minnow nations.
“It answered nothing,” Webster added.
“We got nothing out of it as they were hardly up against the stiffest of opposition.
“Mal said he had a dream about what the team looked like. That’s an interesting take on it.
“He didn’t say what was in that dream.
“If he doesn’t pick Nathan Cleary as the halfback then he’s deadset dreaming.”
Australia play Lebanon in the quarter final on November 5 and will most likely face New Zealand in the semi-final.