KEY POINTS:
BRISBANE - The Kiwis last beat Australia in a rugby league test three years ago, when Ruben Wiki was still skipper.
That victory came in one of the highlights of Wiki's long playing career, the 24-0 whitewash in the Tri-Nations final in Leeds.
The two teams' next meeting will be in the World Cup final in Brisbane on Saturday, with the Kangaroos going in as hot favourites to claim the trophy for the seventh time in a row and the 10th in total.
But Wiki sees no reason why the Kiwis can't end an eight-match barren streak against their transtasman rivals and cause a boilover that would land New Zealand the cup for the first time.
The fact that just four of the 24-strong squad had experienced victory over Australia wasn't an issue, because the Kiwis knew their opponents well from having tangled with them in the National Rugby League.
"It's been done before," Wiki said.
"At the end of the day, it's a game of footy and they're 17 blokes in different jerseys. Our boys play them week-in and week-out and know their strengths and weaknesses, so I don't see why they can't do it."
But Wiki, who retired from test football two years ago with a world record 55 caps, added the proviso that all 17 New Zealand players in the final would have to bring their A game to Suncorp Stadium.
What the Kiwis couldn't afford was a repeat of the errors that punctuated their 32-22 semifinal victory over a similarly mistake-prone England at the same venue on Saturday night.
Having opened out a 16-0 lead during the first half, the Kiwis were made to sweat it out as they allowed England to keep coming back, before a late Benji Marshall try finally sealed the result.
Wiki is part of the New Zealand cup campaign as a trainer and one of the positive aspects of the semifinal for him was that, when the Kiwis stuck to their game plan, they had success.
That was the message to the players at halftime after the Lions had chopped the margin to 16-10 - "stick to what works".
"When we knuckled down, did the hard yards, got to the kick, it worked for us."
However, the Kiwis fell asleep at stages, deviated from their strategy and got themselves into trouble.
"We got away from it, got a little fancy," Wiki said.
"We put ourselves in a tough position. Luckily we dug deep enough to pull something out. "
Australia have been in imperious form throughout the World Cup.
In the second semifinal in Sydney last night, they completed the expected big win over Fiji, who had qualified from the second-tier of nations in the competition. The final score was 52-0.
The closest that the Kangaroos have been pushed on the scoreboard has been when they faced New Zealand in Sydney in the opening weekend, but even then they cruised to a 30-6 victory.
For Wiki, the key to an upset over Australia was putting in an 80-minute performance, something the New Zealand haven't yet achieved in the tournament.
Giving away cheap turnovers as they did against England would be fatal against the defending champions.
"We have to be relentless for 80 minutes," he said.
"We have to treat the ball like gold. If we give Australia cheap ball, we'll get punished."
- NZPA
