Cronk stars as Kangaroos down Wales ahead of final

Australia five-eighth Cooper Cronk grabbed a hat-trick as the Kangaroos overcame a sluggish start to beat Wales 56-14 in their warm-up for next week's Four Nations final with England. Tim Sheens's troops were stunned early on as the Dragons scored twice through Rhys Williams and Elliot Kear and kept Australia scoreless for 25 minutes here on Sunday. But when Australia captain Cameron Smith touched down shortly afterwards the floodgates opened and the Kangaroos ran in 10 tries -- Cronk bagging two before the half and a third with 11 minutes remaining. Johnathan (attn eds: correct) Thurston added 20 points courtesy of eight goals and a try as Australia ensured they headed into the November 19 final at Elland Road in Leeds, northern England, with a perfect tournament record of three wins from as many matches. After barely leaving their own half in the opening 10 minutes, Wales shocked the Kangaroos by taking the lead through Williams's try. Lee Briers, in his final international game before retiring, found Williams with a delightful kick through and the centre touched down first for his 11th try in 12 internationals after just nine minutes. And after making another half-break, Welsh skipper Briers floated a pass out to Kear who stepped inside Josh Morris to reach over for Wales's second try. The Australians finally got on the board as captain Smith burrowed over from close range with Thurston adding the extras to make it 8-6. Still the Welsh frustrated the Kangaroos, but their defence faltered just before half-time as Cronk scored their second try. He collected a pass from Melbourne Storm team-mate Smith, who had sidestepped his way through before feeding Cronk as Australia took the lead for the first time in the match. And there was time for one more try as Cronk again went over after Greg Inglis ran a beautiful line off Thurston?s pass before finding the five-eighth. Thurston then made it 18-8 at the break. Sheens clearly wanted a reaction from his team and they came flying out of the blocks in the second half with two tries in the opening five minutes. First, Thurston made a searing break before finding Cronk who slipped the ball to Manly rookie Daly Cherry-Evans for a debut try with Thurston adding the extras. Darius Boyd then staked his claim to deputise for the injured Billy Slater next week at full-back as he raced over from inside his own half for the Kangaroos' fifth try, Thurston's conversion making it 30-8. But Wales refused to lie down and after another kick from Briers, which the Kangaroos failed to deal with, Jordan James pounced to dive over. Briers this time converted to make it 30-14. Australia responded when Boyd made another break out wide before passing inside to Thurston who raced over for his first try of the night. And Thurston collected a stray pass from Mark Lennon before finding Inglis for another. Thurston continued his perfect kicking display to make it 42-14 just after the hour. Boyd again showed his class as he found Jharal Yow Yeh who dived over in the corner for his second international try in as many matches for the Kangaroos, Thurston missing the difficult conversion. Cherry-Evans was next to break through, sending Cronk over for his third, and Morris added the 10th try from an Inglis pass to round off the victory.