Malcolm Boyle: Mantra must be 'must try harder'

Stephen Kearney. Photo / APN

By any measure when Kiwi Rugby League coach Stephen Kearney sits down to assess yesterday morning's test match against France in Avignon, his verdict must be "not good enough".

The Kiwis take a short break from football now but their scrappy performance against a gritty French side suggests they would benefit from some more hard football. Their 48-0 win was flattering, to say the least, and came on the back of sterling performances by dummy half Isaac Luke and hard-running prop forward Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.

This was an important game for the Kiwis going into the second round of the World Cup competition but it was marred by frequent errors, bad options and periods of muddling low intensity.

Australian coach Tim Sheens would have seen plenty of areas for the Kangaroos to exploit. The Kiwis' defensive effort was at times poor and the score did not reflect the tenacity of the French effort.

The Kiwis missed Thomas Leuluai who will be vital to their chances of closing down the inside backs of the Kangaroos. At the moment the Kiwis seem to be uncertain about their strongest approach - is it through the power game or the skill of their halves?

While the Kiwis scored a bucketload of points, their error rate was unacceptably high. It goes without saying that Sonny Bill Williams is needed more than ever to provide that link between the forwards and backs.

It also might be timely to remind the players that there's still plenty of football to be played and that the World Cup is far from safely headed back to New Zealand.