Australia's latest World Cup smash-up helps nobody

Gallows humour was the order of the day for Australia's World Cup match against Wales, which was only fitting given it trudged towards its inevitable conclusion like the condemned to the executioner's block.

The Jillaroos ran out 124-6 winners in a game where the only element of contest was whether the reigning world champions could bring up the century.

They did it easily in the end, smashing their own record for biggest World Cup win, with Jamie Chapman's sixth try in the shadows of the full-time siren eclipsing France's 116-0 victory over Serbia in 2023 in the most lopsided result in women's international rugby league history.

In the first half, as they ran up a 60-0 lead, Australia scored 10 tries and Wales played the ball just 15 times. Five-eighth Jesse Southwell finished with 44 points on her own.

The Jillaroos did not make a tackle from the fifth minute until after the half-time siren and Australian halfback Tarryn Aiken did not make a tackle until 10 minutes before full-time.

After Australia scored its 15th try of the match it started getting booed by the sparse Parramatta Stadium crowd, who reserved their biggest cheer of the day for Welsh second rower Paige Travis's score that narrowed the gap to 100-6.

It was the sole bright spot of the match but the punters soon returned to an idle stupor as Australia added four more tries in the final seven minutes.

All World Cups are going to have their blowouts and rugby league's more than most. But they must serve a wider purpose and this one did not.

It benefited nobody and served to damage the tournament's credibility and its only legacy can be like Australia's 110-4 win over Russia in the men's 2000 World Cup, which is to say as a historical oddity for the trainspotters.

As the women's World Cup reckons with what has been an uneven tournament at best, marred by the same enormous scorelines of the men's edition but with few of the strong crowds, questions must be asked as to why a game like this could happen at all.

The uninterested and meagre turn-out for this match was proof it did not maximise the product, which very much felt like a curtain-raiser to the two men's matches that followed. Nor does it aid development. 

It stuffed some stat sheets and gave ammunition to the bad-faith actors who are always on the hunt for an opportunity to take a shot at women's sport.

The Jillaroos are the best team in the world by an order of magnitude and have been for years. They gain nothing by putting the cleaners through Wales, who exist in a different universe.

That's why the Welsh should be spared any blame for how this went down. When the criticism comes it should not fall on them.

They qualified fair and square but they did not ask for this and there's no way to say it without sounding patronising but they did their best in the face of impossible odds.

While they have Canterbury halfback Tayla Preston and North Queensland winger Sian Williams as well as a smattering of Super League talent in Bethan Daiton, Carys Marsh and Agnes Wood, most of their players ply their trade in the women's second division in England.

It's a competition that can still have the draw disrupted by forfeits and a far cry from the semi-professional existence most of the Australians lead.

Cardiff plays the same sport as the Sydney Roosters, but the two teams live in different worlds.

Some of the Welsh players had only played a handful of rugby league games before this tour and their entire coaching staff is filled by volunteers.

As Australia moves on to the semi-finals, Wales heads home with a few bumps and bruises and perhaps a few stories to tell.

It is part of the developing arm of a developing sport and while it has its place on the international scene it is not across from an Australia side who are so dominant it's starting to become a problem.

They are overwhelming against everyone they play, let alone a team from the sport's frontiers packed with players who have never taken on athletes like Chapman, Tamika Upton or Jess Sergis in their lives.

Even so, lopsided results are not an issue on their own, so long as they serve a wider purpose.

The progress of Samoa, Fiji and Papua New Guinea through this World Cup would not have happened if they were not exposed to teams like Australia and New Zealand, even if there were growing pains.

Hours later, in the same stadium, Tonga and Samoa played out the most eagerly anticipated clash of the men's World Cup, one which could have sold out the ground twice over.

None of that happens without some blow-outs along the way.

But there are limits to what can be found amid the wreckage when a team who shouldn't be there are thrown into the fast lane.

Total obliteration leaves nothing behind. This was not a building block; this was a massacre that left no survivors.