Aussie Maizen’s Italy treble adorns RLWC

Ian Chadband | October 17, 2022

Jake Maizen, who plays his rugby league in the Queensland Cup, has made a name for himself at the World Cup by scoring the tournament’s first hat-trick in Italy’s shock win over Scotland at Newcastle.

Yet while the second-half treble for the Sunshine Coast Falcons’ flyer was the undoubted highlight for the Azzurri, it was a bona fide NRL luminary, Nathan Brown, who pulled all the strings in their dominant 28-4 upset win at Kingston Park on Sunday.

On his Italy debut, Maizen looked to have missed his chance of a glorious bow when he spilled a great opportunity to go over in the first half.

But he made up for it after the break with a treble that was sealed when he raced away from 80 metres out to score in the 77th minute.

Maizen was joined on the scoresheet by his Falcons’ teammate Luke Polselli and 31-year-old Sydneysider Dean Parata, a London Broncos hooker.

It was Brown, though, who proved the dominant figure just two weeks after he featured in Parramatta’s NRL grand final loss.

“It’s a privilege to captain my country and a proud moment for Italian rugby league,” said Brown, who has Italian heritage on his mother’s side and played for the Azzurri alongside Australia’s captain James Tedesco at the last edition.

“We had a good preparation and all the boys believed we could do it. We said all week we wanted to play for our families, and for each other and we did that.”

For the Scottish Bravehearts, though, it was a calamitous afternoon as they never got going and managed only one try from another Australian, Lachlan Walmsley, in the dying stages.

Quarter-finalists in 2013, Scotland had gone into the game as favourites but are now set for the wooden spoon following a lifeless display in front of a 6,206 crowd.

And the really bad news? Nathan Graham’s side next have to play Australia in Coventry on Friday night.

They had no answer to the ball-handling skills of man-of-the-match Brown, who did most to evoke memories of Italy’s shock triumph over Wales in the opening game of the 2013 World Cup in Cardiff.

Graham was able to call on six players from Super League and the Dolphins’ Euan Aitken but they were outplayed by a side which didn’t even havea warm-up match.

Polselli just managed to latch on to Radean Robinson’s grubber with inches to spare to score the first try on nine minutes before Parata dummied his way over for their second midway through the first half.

Scotland made it even harder for themselves when skipper Dale Ferguson was sin-binned four minutes before halftime for foul play, which helped Maizen go over for his first try in the 44th minute, before he then notched his second after a defensive blunder.

With PA