Big Jillaroos win exposes concerning gulf between Australia and England

The Jilaroos despatched England 90-4 in a brutal showcase of the class difference between the two countries' rugby league sides.

Playing in the third of Allegiant Stadium's rugby league quadruple header on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Australia broke a whopping 56 tackles and completed 31 of their 37 sets in a one-sided affair.

The Jillaroos scored seven tries in 17 minutes either side of halftime, with the final score just two points shy of the national record for points scored in a game.

While a flawless performance, the magnitude of the result brought into question whether best in the world Australia would have been better placed facing off against a more established opponent.

With the goal of the venture being to bring new eyeballs to the sport, a blowout result doesn't depict the sport through a competitive lens.

While Australia is the trailblazing country in its development of female rugby league, England's domestic competition, the super league, remains in its infancy.

The English players are not yet professional, and are unaccustomed to playing in front of big crowds, and haven't conceded a point in their past two internationals against European opponents.

“The more we can play southern hemisphere opposition, the better we will get playing rugby league as a nation,” coach Stuart Barrow said.

“It was the shock today for a lot of our girls.

“It blew them away from the first five minutes and that's because they haven't experienced that intensity in our domestic competition or our internationals we've previously played.

“We tried to tell them that was coming and watch a lot of video and replicate the intensity in training but until you get out there and feel it (you don't know).”

English players Georgia Roche and Hollie-Mae Dodd both play in the NRLW with second rower Paige Travis to join them this year, with their involvement in the competition a key sport to growing the sport in England.

Barrow also expressed concern about the current state of the women's super league, where the gulf between the best teams and the rest of the competition is too great.

“We need to improve our competition and the support around our competition so the best players are playing the best players more often because at the moment all the England girls are spread among three or four teams and they play each other twice a year and the rest of the competition doesn't enable them to be challenged as much as we would like to challenge them,” Barrow said.

“There has to be a review of where the competition is at and how we can support the competition more.”

Coaching her first test match, coach Jess Skinner played a straight bat when asked about the prospect of instead facing off against the Kiwis going forward.

“New Zealand vs Australia here would be epic as well and we always love standing up and going toe to toe with the Kiwis but (even though) it's not England's night tonight, they're building something special and they have a few key players coming to the NRLW,” Skinner said.

“We're grateful for the NRLW competition to be able to allow our girls to play the footy they do.

“Of course, it will be another good matchup if we play the Ferns, we're always keen to play them but we're also grateful that England have come to the party and wanted to play us here because if they didn't, this match might not have happened either.

“This is a great platform for them to grow the game in their country and we're about that as well: women elevating women.”

Barrow expressed concern about whether Australia would view the Lionesses as an appealing opposition in the future, a notion cast aside by Australian Kezie Apps.

“I would love to (play England again), of course,” Apps said.

“That's the only way you grow, you go back to the drawing board.

“The more games you play, the better you become so hopefully we do get to play them again, of course we'd love to play them.”