'Unbelievable' Harry Grant pushes for Australia starting spot at RLWC as Daly Cherry-Evans struggles in Nathan Cleary's absence

Joshua Thomas

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'Unbelievable' Harry Grant pushes for Australia starting spot at RLWC as Daly Cherry-Evans struggles in Nathan Cleary's absence image

Australia kicked off their latest Rugby League World Cup campaign with a 42-8 win over Fiji.

While a big victory in the end, the Kangaroos conceded first and looked sloppy at times as coach Mal Meninga opted against using any of the players that featured in the NRL grand final. 

Australia were more clinical in the second-half with Melbourne Storm hooker Harry Grant stealing the show off the bench. 

The 24-year-old scored a try and set up another with a brilliant kick during a cameo that had pundits raving. 

"Harry Grant off the bench, excellent. Unbelievable off the bench," Corey Parker said post-match on Fox League.

"The way he was able to change the momentum of the game, it will be interesting to see if he starts on the bench in the next game or whether he starts at the moment."

MORE: England beat Samoa in shock thrashing | When is the RLWC final? 

While Cameron Munster was named man of the match, Greg Alexander also believed Grant was the standout for the Kangaroos. 

"Munster did some great things in that second-half, very clever, but I'm with Corey, I thought Harry Grant was the difference," Alexander said.

"You could notice the difference to our service immediately when he came on and I know it's the Queensland model of Ben Hunt starting and Grant off the bench, I don't know if they stick with that. Ben Hunt's execution was a little off today."

With Nathan Cleary rested for the match against Fiji, Daly Cherry-Evans started at halfback but struggled to make the most of his chance.  

"I don't know if Daly Cherry-Evans will play another game at halfback," Parker said. 

"Provided everything goes well in terms of players not getting injury, how do you dislodge someone like Nathan Cleary? He's yet to prove himself in a Kangaroos jersey but Daly Cherry-Evans he's been there for a long period of time, it was a mixed bag from him.

"Couple kicks didn't go where he needed, a couple of passes didn't go where he needed and from your halfback, you really need that. Now, he'll probably get an opportunity against Scotland and I'm sure he'll make the most of that, but it's only a short prep and you need that cohesion." 

Australia will next play Scotland on Saturday (AEDT) with Meninga ready to shuffle his squad as he looks to fine-tune the team before the knockout stages. 

"We've got some competition in the team, all 24 players," Meninga said post-match. 

"So the rest of the guys will play next week, put their best foot forward and we'll make the tough decisions at the back-end of it." 

Joshua Thomas

Joshua Thomas Photo

Josh has been covering sport for nearly a decade now having fallen in love with football at a young age. A UTS graduate, Josh has previously worked for GOAL and now covers football closely for The Sporting News.