‘He’s a freak’: Wallabies gun explodes at Rugby World Cup

Australia has escaped to make a winning start to the Rugby World Cup — and one star announced himself on the world stage.

Ben Donaldson of Australia. Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images.

Ben Donaldson scored 25 points to help give Eddie Jones his first win in six games as Australia beat Georgia 35-15 in their Rugby World Cup opener on Sunday morning (AEST).

Donaldson, 24, making just his fourth Test appearance, ensured Jones ended his poor run of results since returning as boss in January and started their Pool C campaign on a positive note.

However, the match was closer than the scoreline suggests and Aussie pundits have shared concerns about how polished the side looked.

Donaldson was under huge pressure after Jones’ shock decision to put him at fullback — and he responded with a man of the match performance.

“We’ve been building for a long time now and the boys executed really well for the full 80 minutes,” Donaldson said.

“In the end it made me look half-decent so I put that on all the boys.”

Aussie prop Angus Bell was much more flattering of Donaldson’s match.

“He’s a freak and we all know that,” he said on Stan Sport.

“You just need Donaldson to adjudicate at the back and unleash our world-class wingers, he did his bit today and got two tries, he was unreal.

Ben Donaldson celebrates with Carter Gordon. Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images.

“Hats off to him. He’s been training so hard as well as the other boys, I’m sure when everyone else gets their shot it will be good for them too because we train bloody hard. Really good for him. I’m happy for him.”

Wallabies great Mat Rogers, however, was not convinced by the Aussie performance, but did give Donaldson credit for a “huge performance”.

“He stood up on the biggest stage. Full credit to him,” Rogers said on Stan Sport.

“He did what he had to do. It’s going to get tougher and we’re going to need him to improve.”

Georgia scored a try during a period when they had 14 men on the field, and butchered a try when fullback Davit Niniashvil failed to pass to unmarked men on his inside.

Moments later Taniela Tupou set up Donaldson to score untouched, breaking Georgia’s back when the Europeans could have cut the margin to 21-15.

“They went into the second half and I wanted to see a more decisive decision making. Unfortunately I didn’t see it,” Rogers said.

“I thought the second half was quite poor from Australia. We saw Australia score an opportunistic try… but prior to that Georgia were all over us. They were dominating field position. They had opportunity to score points. And we were lucky that they didn’t score more points because they might have got a little bit more excited and could have really made a game of it. We got away with the win. That was the most important thing.”

Will Skelton’s team has a long way to come. Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images.

Flanker Luka Ivanishvili had given Georgia hopes of a late comeback with a second-half try but the Lelos failed to claim a sixth victory in the competition.

Jones, 63, brought back winger Marika Korobeite and inside centre Samu Kerevi into his side after injury absences.

The two-time World Cup winners opened the scoring after less than two minutes as Kerevi’s midfield partner Jordan Petaia crashed over in front of more than 75,000 spectators in Paris.

Donaldson missed the conversion, having been handed the goal-kicking duties from fly-half Carter Gordon, who missed 10 points from the tee in last month’s warm-up loss to France, at the same ground.

Gordon’s negative experience at the Stade de France continued five minutes into this game as he was penalised for a dangerous tackle after having had his clearance kick charged down and opposition fly-half Luka Matkava cut the deficit to 5-3.

Four minutes after crossing, 23-year-old Petaia turned provider as his subtle offload set up winger Mark Nawaqanitawase.

Ben Donaldson. Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images.

Donaldson made up for his earlier error to make it 18-3 with a conversion and two penalties before the first water break of the game, with the temperature reaching 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).

Petaia proved his worth in defence after 22 minutes with a dominant tackle on Georgia winger Miriani Modebadze before Donaldson made it 21-3 after half an hour with a fourth three-pointer.

With five minutes of the half remaining Jones lost his influential starting scrum-half Tate McDermott to concussion, with experienced Nic White coming on.

Kerevi’s work for the day was done as he was replaced by Lalakai Foketi at the interval and it was Georgia who started the second half the better.

They were rewarded as flanker Ivanishvili crossed in the corner from a delightful Matkava pass, cutting out three would-be defenders.

Matkava missed the conversion but it failed to dampen his teammates’ wild celebrations with the score 21-8 with half an hour to play.

Georgia’s dim hopes of a win were short-lived as Donaldson added a converted try, assisted by prop Taniela Tupou on his 50th Test appearances, with 25 minutes to play to make it 28-8.

With a quarter of the game remaining Petaia followed Kerevi to the bench, with next Sunday’s game with Fiji on Jones’ mind, before the Waratahs’ Donaldson claimed his double and the bonus point for his side in an impressive display.

Donaldson was named man of the match as Georgia found a consolation try through replacement Beka Gigashvili.