League: Kiwis serve up a 'Slice of Heaven' for the fans

New Zealand celebrates victory in the Tri Nations Rugby League Test match. Picture / GETTY IMAGES

The Kiwis pinched the Tri-Nations final from under the Australians' noses yesterday in a match which rewrote the record books.

The 24-point gap equalled the most put on the Kangaroos but the fact the Aussies failed to score means it beats the 49-25 win at Brisbane in 1952. Only one other time have the Kiwis held Australia scoreless, the 18-0 result to Graham Lowe's team at Carlaw Park in 1985.

Kiwis captain Ruben Wiki was rightly awarded the Man of the Match in his 50th test but not one of his side under-performed.

It was close to the perfect game from the Kiwis, whose enthusiasm to help each other drive their opponents backwards in tackles and to go for loose balls led to an early try and sustained pressure on Australia.

The Kangaroos were ashen afterwards, perhaps many including their coach Wayne Bennett wondering whether they will be back in green and gold again because recriminations will surely follow across the Tasman.

They are bound to grizzle about the first try to Paul Whatuira, awarded after the English video referee ruled in his favour in a 50/50 call over a disputed bomb.

When David Kidwell took an interception on the Kiwis' line and went 60m, Luke O'Donnell held him down in the tackle, was penalised and then threw a punch, you knew the Kangaroos were frustrated.

The Kiwis continued to hammer down the Australians' right to exploit Manu Vatuvei's size and power advantage over Brent Tate and the big wing scored.

Four minutes later Vatuvei scored again.

The Kangaroos infringed and Stacey Jones took easy points and at halftime, 16-0 down and never having looked like scoring, Australia were desperate.

When Brent Webb scored at 52 minutes and Jones slotted a penalty after he was hit high, it was all over.

The Kiwis had the luxury of two fresh men in the second half.

Coach Brian McClennan said afterwards that he'd always planned to keep Ali Lauitiiti in reserve but the dominant first half allowed him to hold David Solomona back too. "I thought those two really lifted us when they came on."

"Doing the Bluey" might become a popular method of celebration, the Kiwis coach making a habit of marking his historic wins with fists held above his head as he leaps up and down as he did on Elland Rd yesterday.

Meanwhile his team were grouped arms around each other, also jumping up and down as they sang the "Da Da Da" refrain from Dave Dobbyn's song Slice of Heaven.

The boys from Footrot Flats had stumped those from the top end of town, they'd made history, something McClennan aimed them at all series.

Wiki cried as he was asked what it meant. "History is sweet mate," he said.

Jones admitted he didn't even know what day it was as he took the field after flying from France to New Zealand and back to Leeds in the space of six days to attend the birth of his third child, a son, William.

He buried all talk of jet-lag with a clever role in game-running, his kicking game the point of the Kiwis' spear.

"It was worth coming back for, for sure," Jones said. "Our defence was fantastic."

And so it was. Wiki again leading from the front with a tackle count of 26. It was the means, strength and delivery of the tackles that told, the Australian props unable to get go-forward.

By comparison with meagre returns from Jason Ryles in particular, Petero Civoniceva, Mark O'Meley and Steve Price, the Kiwis had a massive 196m from Wiki, 161m from Kidwell, 138m from bench man Roy Asotasi, 106m from Motu Tony and 101m from Paul Rauhihi.

The Kangaroos were steam-rolled to error.

They completed around one-third of their sets in the first half and 50 per cent in the second. But as they improved, so did New Zealand.

This win sets the Kiwis on a path to further glory.

When teams run out for the next Anzac contest, the Kiwis will believe they can win, the Australians will be thinking how hard it was last time at Leeds and how they couldn't score.

The win secures McClennan's coaching contract through to the World Cup in 2007 and with that comes stability.

There is good mix of youth and experience in the side and, for those left out injured or not selected, there is now huge incentive to be there, which will engender competition for places and provide depth.

But McClennan and his boys weren't thinking of the future.

"Everyone wrote us off - what a fantastic effort," he said.

"We were confident we could do this. It takes courage to change things but we did, we played a different defence and we caused some turnovers from that, everything worked in our favour."

Wiki's influence was crucial, McClennan said.

"He just showed everyone how much he wanted to win."

So was that of Nigel Vagana, particularly in defence, until he left the field with a badly turned ankle, the injury not thought to be serious.


Milestones

* The three-test result for the Kiwis, 38-28 in Sydney, 24-22 in Auckland and 24-0 in Leeds is just the third series win in 21 attempts.
* The Kiwis won the first series contested in 1908, scores 11-10 at Sydney, 24-12 at Brisbane and 9-14 at Sydney.
* The last New Zealand series win over the Kangaroos was in 1953, 25-5 in Christchurch, 12-11 in Wellington and 16-18 in Auckland.
* The Kiwis yesterday equalled the biggest points gap scored over Australia, 49-25 at Brisbane in 1952.
* The last time the Kangaroos lost a series was in 1978, to France in France.
* Ruben Wiki, Man of the Match in his 50th test at Leeds yesterday, holds the all-time test appearance record for all countries. New Zealand 24 Australia 0