Wallabies wallop Barbarians

The Wallabies have made a polished start to their domestic campaign by scoring a convincing 55-7 victory over Sonny Bill Williams' Barbarians to claim the Nick Shehadie Cup in front of a capacity crowd at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday night.

A three-try blitz saw the home side skip out to a commanding 20-0 lead midway through the opening stanza before Iain Balshaw opened the visitors' account right on half-time to send his side into the sheds with a glimmer of hope.

But after a scrappy start to the second term the Wallabies piled on the points with five converted tries to put the result beyond doubt.

Man-of-the-match Matt Giteau picked up where he left off for the Western Force bagging a 16-point haul highlighted by a brilliant solo effort in the first half, while Stirling Mortlock was also heavily involved throughout.

Former All Black Jerry Collins showed he is still a formidable force with a tireless display in the back-row, while Williams did enough to suggest he will be back on the international stage sooner than later.

The former Bulldogs star came agonisingly close to scoring with his first touch in just the third minute as he shrugged off Mortlock only to be denied by a bone-jarring tackle by Luke Burgess.

It was all the visitors in the opening exchanges but the Wallabies drew first blood when they scored from their first venture into enemy territory in the seventh minute when George Smith put James Horwill over for the opening try and a 5-0 lead.

The Wallabies showed their cards seven minutes later when Giteau shrugged off a chorus of boos from a crowd hungry for tries to slot a penalty goal.

The hosts stayed on the attack and moved further ahead when Drew Mitchell danced through three defenders and planted the ball on the line for his side's second five-pointer.

The onslaught continued when Giteau ghosted through a gaping hole from an attacking scrum for the easy score.

His conversion made it 20-0 the Wallabies' way in the 26th minute.

But despite the Wallabies' complete dominance before the break it was the Baa Baas who had the final say of the half when Balshaw completed an 80-metre movement which began with a Phil Waugh intercept.

Luke McAlister made no mistake with his sideline conversion to head into the break trailing 20-7.

The Barbarians created the first legitimate chance of a scrappy opening to the second stanza with a brilliant one-arm off-load from Williams putting the visitors deep in attack.

But the Wallabies defence was up to the task and they were rewarded for their efforts almost immediately when hooker Stephen Moore completed a sweeping movement.

Giteau made no mistake to make it 27-7 with 22 minutes remaining.

The Wallabies showed no mercy on their tiring opponents with replacement prop Ben Alexander crossing for the host's fifth try of the night on 66 minutes.

Mitchell bagged his double six minutes later before young guns David Pocock and James O'Connor chimed in with late tries to complete the eight-tries-to-two romp.

Wallabies 55
Tries: Mitchell 2, Horwill, Giteau, Moore, Alexander, Pocock, O'Connor,
Conversions: Giteau 4, Mortlock 2
Penalty goals: Giteau,

Barbarians 7
Tries: Balshaw,
Conversions: McAlister,
@Sydney Football Stadium, 6/06/09. Crowd: 39,688.