Rugby League: It's a horror night for the Kiwis

By PETER JESSUP

SYDNEY - The string of injury-enforced changes and the late arrival of crucial team members Henry and Robbie Paul haunted the Kiwis at Stadium Australia last night, with their preparation clearly wanting.

They were given no chance to get into the game by a committed Kangaroo outfit and by the end were lucky to get out at 0-52, an ignominious record, their biggest defeat.

Frank Endacott's decision to stick Henry Paul into the unfamiliar centre role, enforced after injury ruled out regular centres Ruben Wiki and Willie Talau, backfired badly. The Australians worked him over.

Henry Paul had an uncharacteristically awful day with his hands and boot, and the side missed his intrusive running around the ruck. He and Richie Blackmore rarely got clean ball without tacklers coming with it, thanks to the pressure the Kangaroos put on Stacey Jones and Robbie Paul.

There was none of the go-forward the New Zealanders' size advantage should have brought, and the tackling was not fearsome enough to unsettle their roll.

The crowd of 26,023, about 8000 fewer than for this game last year, was also a disappointment. There was little promotion in Sydney, leaving the New Zealand Rugby League wondering whether there is any Australian commitment to international football.

This game will not have helped because the only thing sure to get the fans in is the belief that their side might lose, and from minute two last night there was no chance of that.

The Australians had approached referee Bill Harrigan to ask for quick play-the-balls but that turned out to be a con, with the Kangaroos lying all over the Kiwis.

The rest of their game plan was as expected, with plays off Fittler, and it was the Australian captain who scored first and last in a true leadership display.

The Kiwis started well enough, having a try disallowed in the first 80 seconds when Joe Vagana went at the line with three tacklers but the video ref ruling a double movement.

In the fifth minute they were cruelly denied again, with Matt Rua in the clear off a Vagana pass which Harrigan ruled forward when it was a line-ball.

The Kiwis were milling about like shellshocked soldiers when, on the next play, Fittler changed angle to run back on the sliding defence and split slower forwards Steve Kearney and Vagana to score near the posts.

It was only nine minutes into the game when the Kangaroos had their second, Mat Rogers gathering a Fittler bomb that bounced badly for Lesley Vainikolo.

At 22 minutes, new Kangaroos Scott Hill and Chris McKenna combined, Hill busting the line and serving a sweet hand-off for a try under the bar and, with Rogers nailing all three goals, it was 18-0.

In the 27th minute, Nigel Vagana spilled a bomb from Jason Smith and Wendell Sailor beat him to the regather. It was 22-0 and the Kiwis were halfway to their worst defeat at the hands of the old enemy, the 0-44 thrashing at the Sydney Football Stadium in 1991.

There had been little urgency in their attack, none of the ferocious forward work prescribed by the coach. Their kick-chase was ordinary, the defensive line a squiggle, so they played at the wrong end of the field. And the Aussie playmakers were allowed far too much easy ground, with the defence waiting.

Matt Rua went off just before the break, concussed when he got McKenna's knee in a tackle in front of the New Zealand posts, and did not come back.

Nor did the Kiwi spirit, sloppy defence letting Jason Smith through to pick up Gorden Tallis on the burst for the first points in the second half. When intercept specialist Ryan Girdler snaffled a Robbie Paul pass and went 80m untouched after 47 minutes, the Kiwis were done.

Shaun Timmins and Brad Fittler scored when allowed to run. Mat Rogers converted another Fittler break, his second try and eight conversions also a record in tests.

The Kiwis blew their few chances at the other end with poor handling.

Not since Jarrod McCracken was sent off early in the game in 1991 have the Kiwis been so demolished and demoralised. They have a long way to go to build back for the World Cup in November.

Australia: 52 (Brad Fittler 2, Mat Rogers 2, Chris McKenna, Wendell Sailor, Gorden Tallis, Ryan Girdler, Shaun Timmins tries; Rogers 8 conversions) New Zealand 0. Halftime: 22-0.