Reece Walsh makes scary warning after incredible debut in Ashes win

Australia won the first Test of the Ashes series 26-6 in large part due to how incredible Reece Walsh was and the full-back has since sent England a warning.

The bubble of hype and excitement for the first Ashes Test in 22 years was burst when Australia scored the opening try as Man of the Match Reece Walsh supported a break before spectacularly swan-diving over to score.

That wasn’t his final time crossing the try line as he put a bow on the win with his score in the second half, having ‘broken England’s spirit’ in the eyes of pundit Jon Wilkin immediately after the break.

Jez Litten kicked deep into the corner yet Reece Walsh was able to evade numerous tacklers from the England kick chase, dancing his way into England territory before passing to Josh Addo-Carr, who would have scored but for a Herbie Farnworth ankle tap tackle.

“That break really just broke England’s spirit,” Wilkin argued on the BBC, adding: “It led to a period where they just couldn’t get any field position back.”

Walsh ended his Australia debut with almost 250 running metres, two tries and two huge defensive reads, leading to head coach Kevin Walters joking that the 23-year-old was “okay, without being great”.

Reece Walsh makes “room for improvement” admission

The Brisbane Broncos star also spoke in the post-match presser, asked to assess his first time playing in the green and gold of Australia, with his answer sure to strike fear into England.

“A lot of room for improvement I think, I thought we were pretty scrappy out there,” conceded Reece Walsh.

“We wanted to come into the game with a clear mindset and not trying to overplay our hand. We’ve obviously got a lot of world class players in our team and there’s some things we’d love to take back and get a shot at again, but saying that, it’s our first hit out together, so I’m pretty pleased with that, we got the win.”

Part of the post-match talk was how England would certainly improve but it’s clear that Australia will as well, and possibly even Reece Walsh himself with the full-back admitting to having room for improvement.

“I think there’s some things that I could definitely get better at for sure,” he said.

“I think trying to organise the line, I think there was a few things in defence there where I let the boys down in the game, but we’re all chasing perfection, that doesn’t mean you’re going to get it.

“We’ve just got to keep trying to get better each session, each game, and just try and fix up some areas that we weren’t so good at tonight.”

Pushed further on his performance and what he can improve, he responded: “I think just putting myself in a position to be able to make a play, sometimes I can get caught out of position and chasing my tail a little bit, so that’s something I’ve been trying to work on as much as I can, being in position and not chasing myself.”

England head coach Shaun Wane admitted his side need to apply more pressure to the Australian number one in the second Test, but saying that and doing it are two very different things.

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