Bennett’s boys bashed but series a success
WAYNE BENNETT refused to blame his players despite this crushing final Test defeat.
The Kiwis’ biggest win over England for 18 years took the gloss off the 2-1 series win for Bennett’s men.
But the coach said: “We have got to keep in perspective that we’ve played two great games and played some great football. That is why we won the series.
“New Zealand played their best game today and their most disciplined but we are going in the right direction.”
England were missing more than a dozen players who starred in last year’s World Cup, plus the opening games of this series.
Bennett said: “You never see a scoreline like that coming but it happens. I understand it better than most. We have got a lot of players injured but we’ve got a healthy squad to pick from going forward.”
Tommy Makinson could not repeat his hat-trick heroics of last week but was named Man of the Series. The winger, who had two touchdowns disallowed, said: “It has been a special series but we were not at the races today. We knew the Kiwis would come for us but we just did not turn up.
“They showed their class and were at their best and we weren’t.”
Wigan centre Oliver Gildart, the match-winner in the first Test, also had a first-half try disallowed.
Those three missed chances summed up this match – England were off key, the Kiwis were ruthless. England’s defence was also guilty of being way too soft far too often as New Zealand went for their throats.
Relieved Kiwis coach Michael Maguire said: “We needed that. We worked hard to get a result like that.”
It took the visitors just five minutes to draw first blood when winger Ken Maumalo stepped past both Jermaine McGillvary and Jonny Lomax.
Halting
The opening try stemmed from a terrific offload by prop Jared WaereaHargreaves.
Jamayne Isaako also had an effort disallowed but the Kiwis were starting to ride a wave that England never looked like halting.
Back rower Isaac Liu brushed off a poor tackle by Elliott Whitehead for their next try and minutes later the punishment got worse. Man of the match Kodi Nikorima started and finished a 40m move, Shaun Johnson adding his third goal.
At 18-0 down England needed a huge response in the second half. Instead they collapsed alarmingly.
Maumalo gave the Kiwis another flying start and England could not reply, even when Waerea-Hargreaves was sin-binned for a flop.
By contrast, when McGillvary was binned with 11 minutes to go the Kiwis grabbed two more tries while they had a one-man advantage, Jesse Bromwich and Joseph Tapine both going over.
TORONTO Wolfpack appointed exLeeds Rhinos boss Brian McDermott as their new coach last night.
WALES claimed a place at the 2021 World Cup with after a 40-8 European Championship win over Ireland in Wrexham yesterday.