League: Halves combination shines

Benji Marshall (pictured) and Nathan Fien were outstanding. Photo / Getty Images

If there was one area the Kiwis could be pleased with in the win over Papua New Guinea, it was the halves combination of captain Benji Marshall and Nathan Fien.

They gave the team real direction around the field.

Marshall was at his creative best with room to move against the weak PNG defence.

He jokingly admonished coach Stephen Kearney for taking him off midway through the second half.

"It's the coach's fault, I'm not happy about it. Now I'll probably get punished at training for saying that."

Fien, who had two try assists, felt it was a step up from last week's win over England, albeit taking a weakened PNG into account.

"We were on top out there but our shape allowed us to have a lot more energy and gas when we had the ball.

"It was an improvement on us scrambling last week when we couldn't get the attacking structures we needed."

Coach Stephen Kearney agreed. "We're tracking OK but there were a couple of second-half defensive areas we needed to be wary of."

Issac Luke made a strong impact off the bench, scooting out of dummy-half for 118m and keeping PNG going backwards.

"I'm happy I played the whole second half," he said.

Junior Sau and Sam Perrett each produced hat-tricks.

Perrett said it was a struggle to concentrate once they were up by so many points - a luxury they won't have next week against Australia.

"There is an element of keeping your wits about you. You can tend to do things willy-nilly. There were times at the end when we were making errors. Australia would capitalise on those lapses."