The Timaru Herald

Can hit form at the right time

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Ata glance

Maguire played down the level of his rant, but while he confirmed he got get stuck in, he was happy with parts of their game.

‘‘It was spoken about that I had a conversati­on with the players after the game,’’ he said.

‘‘They know, they all understand the expectatio­ns and what we’re here for.

‘‘We’ve got through the Fijian game and learned a lot out of it. It was nice to see the players come back and show the resilience that we’ve spoken about.’’

The Kiwis need to win the battle in the middle to have a chance of beating the Kangaroos and advancing to the final and it’s where Maguire’s team is the strongest, even if Jared WaereaHarg­reaves has been ruled out through injury.

‘‘It’s going to be a great challenge,’’ Maguire said. ‘‘Both teams have plenty of players who have been playing in finals series and have been playing at the top end of the game.

‘‘It’s nice to see a lot of the players I have, were playing in a grand final or if not, very close to it.

‘‘So they’ve played at the highest level in recent times, which is really pleasing with what we’re going to go into.

‘‘I believe I’ve got a very strong team and a good team,’’ he added.

‘‘We know we’re playing the title contenders. They’ve got that status, but we know what we’ve got to do and how we’ve got to play to achieve what we want.’’

What: Rugby League World Cup semifinal

Who: New Zealand v Australia

Where, when: Elland Road, Leeds; tomorrow 8.45am

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