Kiwis find redemption with crushing win over England
Maguire’s side demonstrate their capabilities in a devastating display
Kiwis coach Michael Maguire lauded his side’s defensive steel to keep England scoreless in their stunning win in the third and final test at Leeds yesterday.
The Kiwis ran rampant, scoring six tries to none in front of 32,186 fans at Elland Road to finish their end-ofyear tour on a high after allowing the series to slip from their grasp with narrow losses in the first two tests in Hull and Liverpool.
Maguire was thrilled with his side’s clinical play that saw them convert almost every attacking chance into points but also took great satisfaction from the fact New Zealand shut out the home side.
England spent periods camped on the visitors’ tryline and had plenty of opportunities to post points, but poor execution, and desperate and relentless tackling saw the Kiwis keep their line intact.
“It would be nice to have a few more games because this group is definitely growing and I felt like they had a performance like this in them,” Maguire told Radio Sport.
“To hold an international team to zero is very pleasing. Defensively, it was something we set out to do, to make sure we were stronger across the five or six-week period, and they’ve been able to show that [in the final test].”
After being their own worst enemies at times in the opening test
defeats, Maguire believes the muchimproved performance was the result of the Kiwis realising where they had gone wrong.
They looked to be heading down the same path inside the first quarter
when passes wide of the ruck resulted in errors from left wing Ken Maumalo and back rower Isaac Liu but they tightened their play and defended well to hang on to a 6-0 lead.
The Kiwis had been guilty of fading late in the first half of the first two encounters but repelled a wave of England attacks before striking back with halfback and man of the match Kodi Nikorima laying on a try for Liu,
before scoring one himself to secure an 18-0 halftime lead.
“I just think their understanding of how they need to play [changed],” Maguire said of the dramatic turnaround in his side’s play.
“International footy can come down to one play, and in the last couple of games, we’ve pushed passes when we shouldn’t have and we [haven’t] applied pressure when we needed to. The group did that [yesterday] and we’ve got to make sure that’s how we do things moving forward.”
Nikorima’s influence continued after the break when his pinpoint kick found Maumalo for his second fourpointer, before late tries to forwards Jesse Bromwich and Joseph Tapine completed the rout.
Five-eighth Shaun Johnson was also strong on attack and kicked four conversions from five attempts before interchange forward Isaiah Papali’i kicked the final goal on debut.
“To have both our two halves really leading the way, pushing the team around, and also having the big fellas in the middle lay the platform was very pleasing,” said Maguire.
“It’s being able to do that continuously now and obviously how they go around in their club football, and I’ll keep my eye on all of those sorts of things.
“But the fact we’ve got young Brandon Smith and Issac Luke still sitting at home, we’ve got a few choices that will keep these boys very hungry to move forward.”
England coach Wayne Bennett was less than impressed with his side’s effort and rued an obstruction call and a foot on the sideline that saw Golden Boot winner Tommy Makinson denied two four-pointers.
“I wasn’t happy with the performance but accepted what happened out there and understand it better than most, so can move on from there,” said Bennett.
“You never see scorelines like that coming but it happens. We got to the tryline on a couple of occasions and they weren’t deemed to be tries, so it just runs that way some days.
“We’ve got to keep in perspective we had two great games and played great football. That’s why we won the series.”