But Jamaica, a league non-entity, rose to the challenge in many respects.
They put the brakes on the Kiwis by bamboozling the tournament's top seeds with an incredible run of successful short restarts, and created a number of attacking chances.
The Kiwis should feel frustrated though.
It's always difficult to judge a World Cup venture in such a weak group, and Jamaica are about as feeble as a World Cup opponent can get.
They are making their debut in the world tournament, with just three Super League players to base their campaign around.
Some of the Jamaican squad are described as semi-professional, and the players helped fund the campaign which saw them qualify for the World Cup at the country's third attempt.
In other words, Jamaica - crushed by Ireland in the opener - were potential cannon fodder for the Kiwis.
The Kiwis struggled to find their rhythm and suffered the embarrassment of allowing Jamaica to score their first-ever World Cup try in the 75th minute, veteran back Ben Jones-Bishop pouncing when Brandon Smith failed to deal with a short kick.
It was a wonderful moment for Jamaica, but not for the Kiwis.
New Zealand were also lacklustre in their opener against Lebanon and will want to really hit their straps in the final pool game against Ireland when - presumably - the influential Hughes takes his place in the lineup alongside Brown.
Brown was hit by a stomach illness persuading coach Michael Maguire to shift fullback Joseph Manu into the halves against Jamaica. But the star Kiwi failed to really fire against the Jamaicans.
Wing Watene-Zelezniak was among the stars, taking advantage of a dominant right-side Kiwi attack to score three tries within the first quarter.
He set up two other Kiwi tries from infield kicks.
Leota, who had a brilliant NRL grand final for Penrith, lost a chance to really impress because of the injury.
Maguire said he thought the Kiwis' cohesion had "got better". Others won't be so sure.
"That Jamaican try will go down in history - so good on them," he said.
"We've got a number of boys coming back - we're looking forward to that."
Improving Fiji could be dangerous opponents, and beat the Kiwis in the last World Cup. It is shaping as a major showdown.
Kiwis 68 (Dallin Watene-Zelezniak 4, Jeremy Marshall-King 2, Brandon Smith 2, Peta Hiku, Marata Niukore, Sebastian Kris, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Briton Nikora tries; Kieran Foran 6 cons, Watene-Zelezniak 2 cons)
Jamaica 6 (Ben Jones-Bishop try, Kieran Rush con)
Halftime: 34-0.
