Spotlight directed at Johnson after Kiwis’ loss
As the Kiwis prepare to open their series against the Great Britain Lions next weekend, should Shaun Johnson be nervously peering over his shoulder?
Johnson has saved some of his best performances for the black and white jersey but the mercurial playmaker was in the spotlight for the wrong reasons on Friday after a disappointing display in the 26-4 loss to Australia in Wollongong.
New Zealand’s attack never really got going as he and halves partner Benji Marshall failed to control the game and build pressure.
Johnson’s kicking game was below-par, particularly in the second half as he gifted the Kangaroos cheap field position on several occasions. He also threw an intercept pass in the first half that led to Australia’s opening try.
Johnson tends to be a magnet for criticism when his side loses and he was savaged by former Aussie playmaker turned Fox Sports pundit Braith Anasta, who labelled the performance ‘‘close to the worst test I’ve ever seen him play’’.
He wasn’t the only player who failed to stand up and Kiwis coach Michael Maguire defended his five-eighth after the match. But with Kieran Foran and Kodi Nikorima in the squad, Maguire has a couple of quality options with test experience should he feel the need to make a change for the opening clash against the Lions at Eden Park in Auckland.
‘‘I’ll talk to Shaun around that space, we’ll go through that,’’ Maguire said. ‘‘We’ve seen Shaun perform and build pressure and tonight just wasn’t his night. So we’ve definitely got to look at that.’’
The Kiwis may have been starved of territory by a clinical Australian outfit, who had the result sewn up heading into the final quarter. But they compounded matters with 13 errors and a completion rate of just 66 per cent.
Leading props Jesse Bromwich and Nelson AsofaSolomona were sorely missed, while injured forwards Isaac Liu and James Fisher-Harris may have added more starch to the defence.
That was no excuse for Maguire as he expected more from his new players.
‘‘We have high expectations in the jersey. We had a number of young guys come in and unfortunately they didn’t get what this jersey’s all about at this present moment,’’ the coach added.
‘‘As a playing group we have identified certain things we want to build in the jersey and that [discipline] is definitely something we talk about.
‘‘The identity of how you play test match football, how it comes down to one play. You’ve got to make sure that you’re in that fight for an 80-minute game.
‘‘If we’re looking at where we want to get to, you’ve got to play that style of game. Australia did that to us, they completed high, built pressure and put the ball into the corners.
‘‘At this level you have to be able to do that. Unfortunately for us we rolled it dead a few times and put a lot of work into us.’’
It certainly wasn’t the performance Marshall had envisaged as he captained his country for the first time since 2012, surpassing Gary Freeman as the Kiwis’ most-capped skipper in the process.
The veteran halfback admitted they shot themselves in the foot far too often to compete with the world champions.
‘‘I thought we tried hard at times but the harder we tried the worse we got in terms of trying to throw the ball around,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re trying to score points and error after error after error, you give Australia that much ball they’re going to capitalise at some stage and they did.
‘‘They’ve got some great attacking players but we didn’t get enough good-ball sets to try and put on the things we wanted to do.’’
Marshall felt it was a ‘‘pretty simple fix’’ but put the onus on himself and the other senior players to drive the turnaround.
‘‘With leadership comes responsibility and we’ve got a big job this week in terms of getting the boys back on track,’’ he said.
‘‘We just need to hold on to the ball and build pressure. With pressure the opposition cracks and that’s what happened to us.’’