Walsh vomits, Ponga plays on with suspected arm fracture in Australia’s 24-22 World Cup opener

Australia beat New Zealand 24-22 in Sydney in Thursday's World Cup opener, a match marked by Reece Walsh doubling over and vomiting on the field and New Zealand full-back Kalyn Ponga continuing for 20 minutes with a suspected broken arm.

Both Walsh and Ponga have previously played for Queensland in State of Origin, and Ponga had switched his international allegiance to New Zealand before the tournament. Walsh was making his first appearance for eight weeks after recovering from an ankle injury and had been prominent for Australia during the 2025 Ashes series.

The Kangaroos secured a last-gasp 24-22 victory when hat-trick hero Jack Bostock scored the winning try; Ponga nearly had to be taken off the pitch minutes before that score. New Zealand had led at stages and Ponga had contributed two tries before the injury curtailed his involvement.

Walsh produced a try-saving tackle on Ponga in the first half and later scored with a 60-metre burst that helped set up Australia's comeback, but he suffered cramping and vomiting during the match and did not have the energy to take a goal kick. Australia head coach Kevin Walters said: "Walshy was very good tonight having not played for eight weeks," and added: "I thought he was really good. That try-saving tackle he did is equal to anything that he can do an attack, and then he comes up with a couple of big plays in attack as well. "He's cramping and vomiting and all sorts of things. He didn't have the energy to kick the goal. He's a chucker [he throws up]. People get nicknames and his nickname is 'Chucker'. "He's not an endurance athlete. He's a power athlete and he had some big efforts there a couple of times, back-to-back and we've seen him do that before."

Australia captain Isaah Yeo, who had chosen to delay surgery on an injured pectoral muscle in order to play in the tournament, praised Walsh's return and work rate. Yeo said: "For Reece to come back in a contest like that with some of those plays is a massive effort after not playing for eight weeks. It won't get spoken about enough but it is really hard to do at this level. "He has just got the ability to just make people miss. I think he made two people miss on the one move but he's just one of those players that can just break a game open, and we probably needed that."

Ponga's evening began strongly, with two tries including a trademark run from deep and an elusive step that left Walsh reaching in vain, but ended with the Newcastle Knights full-back in significant discomfort after a tackle involving Cameron Munster. New Zealand coach Stacey Jones said: "It's a possible fracture of the arm but he's going to go for scans and we're not going to make a call on him right now where he's at," adding: "He had a pretty good game. "I think he played on for 20 minutes, he toughed it out. It's a tough one. They scored a try and that's when we were told what it possibly was and that he would have to come off. "He couldn't catch the ball or anything like that, he was in a lot of discomfort."

Mitchell Moses attempted to run off a calf issue but was forced from the field just after the break, while Yeo's decision to delay pectoral surgery was noted as evidence of his willingness to play through injury. Those absences and fitness concerns added to the physical toll evident across both sides in the opener.

Ponga is scheduled to undergo scans to assess the arm injury, and his availability for the remainder of the World Cup will depend on the results; should he be ruled out it would be a huge blow to New Zealand's hopes of winning a second World Cup, 18 years on from their first.