New Zealand have heaped yet more misery on the Wallaroos and consigned Australia to a winless Pacific Four campaign with a 67-19 rout in Auckland.
The Black Ferns piled on 11 tries to three and had the match won well before halftime, taking a 41-7 lead to the break at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday.
Winger Mererangi Paul bagged a hat-trick and flanker Kennedy Simon jagged a second-half double as New Zealand stretched their utter domination over Australia’s women’s rugby team to 26 wins from 26 encounters.
Hooker Georgia Ponsonby, prop Chryss Viliko, No.8 Kaipo Olsen-Baker, centre Sylvia Brunt, winger Katelyn Vaha’akolo and flanker Liana Mikaele-Tu’u also crossed as the Black Ferns brutally exposed the gulf in class between the trans-Tasman rivals.
The defeat also denied the Wallaroos the chance to secure their place at next year’s Rugby World Cup in England.
They can still qualify but first must pick up the pieces from this crushing loss, as well as previous defeats to Canada and the USA in the four-team series.
There was no sign of such a shellacking on Saturday when Wallaroos flyhalf Arabella McKenzie strolled over in the seventh minute, then converted her own try to level the match at 7-all.
But McKenzie kicking out on the full turned the tide as the Black Ferns grabbed their second try through Brunt in the 13th minute.
The floodgates opened and New Zealand produced a 55-point scoring blitz in 42 minutes to fire a brutal reality check the Wallaroos’ way.
A second try to McKenzie, plus one for prolific winger Maya Stewart, served as little more than consolation efforts for Jo Yapp’s Wallaroos, who must go back to the drawing board before hosting Fiji in Sydney on July 7.
They then play the Black Ferns again the following weekend, chasing redemption in Brisbane.