"He ran for 390-something metres, I'm sure that's a record somewhere. But they all laid a platform for each other and Joe was catching the ball on the full off the back of really good kick pressure."
Kiwis captain Jesse Bromwich was awestruck by Manu's performance, saying it rivalled anything he had seen across his career. That's high praise, given Bromwich has been a long-term teammate of both Billy Slater and Ryan Papenhuyzen, but the skipper was unequivocal.
"It's right up there - just the involvement," said Bromwich. "He's a different sort of body, different strengths to those guys but it was right up there."
"Beating defenders one on one and bringing the ball back with aggression. It's really nice to see as a forward when they put a kick in behind and you turn around and the fullback is flying back and just getting rid of people whenever he felt like it. [It was] one of the best performances I've seen from a fullback and that's saying something - I've played with some really good ones."
Manu's effort epitomised the Kiwis' dominance of possession (58 per cent), yardage (2,106 metres to 1398 metres) and opportunities, with eight line breaks to one.
Both Maguire and Bromwich were thrilled with the effort from the pack, who gave their much-vaunted Tongan opposites no quarter in a brutally physical display.
"Our style, we want to put pressure on the opposition," said Maguire. "Everyone was really strong across the park and the forwards had a really strong foundation."
The coach was mildly disappointed with the third quarter - "we danced around a bit" - but that was a small negative on a night when the Kiwis took an important step forward in World Cup year, while both captain and coach were again blown away by the wonderful atmosphere generated by the sold out crowd.
"It's crazy and you never see anything like it," said Bromwich. "I'm getting older now and it's games like these I [will] remember when I finish."
