Church Scores Four as Jillaroos Survive Fiji Scare to Reach World Cup Final

For the first time in this World Cup, the Jillaroos were losing. And for a few strange, breathless minutes in Sydney on Sunday, the defending champions looked like a team that had forgotten how it felt.

Fiji, playing in their first-ever World Cup semi-final, had no interest in making up the numbers. Luisa Yaranamua opened the scoring with a penalty and then converted her own try, and suddenly the scoreboard read 8-0 to the debutants. It was the first time Australia had trailed at this year's tournament, and it was the first time in a long while that anyone had made them look rattled.

That is worth pausing on. Before Sunday, Australia had conceded a single try in the entire tournament — a consolation against Wales when they were already 100-0 up. Fiji put two past them. The Fijians had come out of the blocks with the kind of fearless intent that makes World Cups worth watching, and for twenty minutes the favourites were shell-shocked.

But champions find a way, and Australia found theirs through Abbi Church. The winger crossed for the first of her four tries, Tamika Upton got involved to put Church over and then scored one of her own, and by half-time the shellshock had been steadied. The second half was where Australia's dominance finally came through: Church bagged her second, Jaime Chapman continued her strong World Cup with a converted try, and the lead stretched to 20-8.

Church was not done. She finished off her hat-trick, Fiji pulled one back to keep the contest alive, and then Church ended any hope of a comeback by scoring a fourth to make it 30-14 and seal the Jillaroos' place in Sunday's final.

It was not the procession many had expected. New Zealand had booked their place in the final on Saturday with a comfortable 32-0 win over Samoa, built in large part on a hat-trick from Stacey Waaka, and it had been assumed Australia would do something similar. Instead they were made to work harder than anyone imagined — and that, in its own way, might be the best preparation they could have had.

Because the final will be anything but a procession. Australia will face their old rivals New Zealand at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane next Sunday, with the Jillaroos seeking a fourth consecutive World Cup win, a record that stretches back to the 2013 tournament in England. The Ferns are the only side to have denied Australia the title since the Kangaroos' men's reign began to dominate the sport's history books, and they beat Samoa without conceding a point.

The two nations will meet in both the men's and women's finals next Sunday — the men after Australia's 44-12 semi-final win over Samoa earlier on Sunday — in what promises to be a magnificent showcase for rugby league. For the Jillaroos, the scare against Fiji may prove to be a gift: a reminder, delivered just in time, that no final is won before it is played.