New Zealand 40 Tonga 24
Coach Stephen Kearney was happy to look on the bright side of life as his side escaped a nasty jam against Tonga to score a somewhat flattering victory in Rotorua.
If Kearney was concerned at the sizeable task he faces to turn the Kiwis into a force capable of challenging Australia in London in just 10 days' time, he was keeping it well hidden after last night's flawed effort.
He wasn't thrilled with his side's ball control - although he felt the greasy conditions were partly to blame - and he lamented the ill-discipline that let Tonga back into a game that should have been settled by half time.
Overall, however, he wasn't too downcast that his team had come within 20 minutes of a serious embarrassment at the hands of a side with a handful of classy performers to augment a bunch of at-best fringe NRL players.
"I don't like to make excuses but a lot of these guys haven't played in over a month," Kearney said. "Overall I thought we were fairly good."
The thought remains, however, that if Feleti Mateo and Epalahame Lauaki can cause the Kiwis these sort of fits, what might the all-star cast of Australians do to them.
Kearney does at least have some fairly significant resources at his disposal, with the likes of Parramatta stars Fuifui Moimoi and Kristnan Inu sure to come into calculations.
"The facts are we have 10 days to work on it. Three of those are spent travelling but I'm sure that over the next week we can get ourselves into a position where we are more than competitive next Saturday night."
Optimists will take the line that it was a typically scratchy first-up effort from a Kiwis side that tend to build form and confidence the longer they stay together, but to describe last night's effort as patchy would be very kind.
The Kiwis had the class to pull clear with three late tries but the list of concerns will be significantly longer than the list of positives.
The Kiwis were well clear at half time but only thanks to a fortunate turn of events in the last eight minutes.
The Tongans scored first through Mateo but the Kiwis replied with three swift tries to take a 16-4 lead.
The Tongans scored a second try, to wing Sam Huihaha, after a strong surge by Wests Tigers second rower Viliami Mataka.
They looked to have closed the gap further when Etuate Uaisele crossed after the Kiwis failed to clean up a grubber. But the try was ruled out for a knock-on by Siuatonga Likiliki.
The Kiwis promptly marched up field and Nathan Fien took advantage of a powerful Adam Blair hit-up to slither through the static Tongan defence and score.
The late reversal of fortunes didn't seem to discourage the Tongans, however, and they emerged from the tunnel quite literally full of fight. Captains Benji Marshall and Mateo exchanged blows two minutes after the restart, with former Warrior Lauaki heavily involved in the resulting all-in confrontation.
The upshot was two straight penalties to Tonga, who capitalised with a try to Uaisele. A knock-on by Mateo gave the Kiwis another video-referee reprieve after hooker Eliakim Uasi had grounded an Eddie Paea kick.
The respite, however, was short lived, with Uaisele crossing for his second when the Kiwis were again caught short out wide.
Just four minutes later Mataka barged over from close range and Paea landed just his second conversion to pull the Tongans level.
Finally, the Kiwis emerged from their slumber, with Marshall grounding a Fien grubber to put his side back in front.
Sam Perrett seemed to have sealed the result with eight minutes to go after a fluent Kiwis attack, but his try was ruled out for a forward pass.
The decisive score came moments later, though, when Marshall reversed play neatly to send Bryson Goodwin over for a try on debut.
