Rugby League: Same old story, Aussies too slick

By PETER JESSUP

The Kiwis dropped the ball and their bundle at the Cake Tin in Wellington last night, with a mechanical Australian side doing the simple things correctly to win 28-10.

If the Kiwis had a game-plan it was not clear what it was.

They offered the Kangaroos too many opportunities by failing to stop the ball-carrier offloading, and when they did make line-breaks there was no support.

The Australian props, Shane Webcke and Jason Stevens, had the better of their opposites and that was pretty much the story across the park.

Slick defence in midfield slammed the Kiwis back repeatedly, and Trent Barrett proved himself a worth successor to captain Fittler, who was playing his last test, by steering the Kangaroos into all the right holes.

The Kiwis gave away the advantage from the start when they had all the territory and possession - three repeat sets of six in the first eight minutes after good kick-and-chase - but they could not get over the line and the psychological weight shifted to the defenders.

After 11 minutes Matt Gidley scored when Andrew Johns attracted two tacklers and offloaded to Trent Barrett, who chipped through for Gidley to toe it on again and beat the cover. After 21 minutes Darren Lockyer scored under the bar after Barrett stepped between Kiwi prop Jerry SeuSeu and centre David Vaealiki and unloaded inside.

The Kiwis made too many handling errors to give themselves an even chance.

Henry Paul's kicking game was ordinary, directing the ball straight to Lockyer's chest too frequently.

There was too little gain from their penalty restarts, one ball lobbing straight into touch for a turnover.

With kicker Ryan Girdler slotting four from four, the home side were in trouble.

The attack faltered for lack of support, and the Kiwi line-breakers were the loneliest players in the stadium.

The Kangaroos led 16-0 at halftime.

The Kiwis needed steadying at the break, as the pressure was prompting them to throw passes that were not on.

They needed bringing back to the game-plan.

Both sides opened the second spell shakily, offering turnovers.

The Kiwis were first scorers after the break when Paul and his brother, Robbie, did a run-around with Vaealiki.

But only four minutes later, the Kangaroos bit back when Wendell Sailor ran down Gidley's crossfield lob.

Barrett sealed it at the 69-minute mark when he ran into a hole on the angle off a Johns pass. With that, the crowd began to leave.

Francis Meli went over wide with a couple of minutes to go, but it was no consolation, really.

The Kiwis had offered little other than one-out stuff on attack. It was a cross between Bradford and the Warriors that was never going to work.

The New Zealand Rugby League will take a long, hard look before going to Wellington as a test venue again after a disappointing turnout of 26,580.

The crowd was no bigger than that for the Warriors-Bulldogs game at the Cake Tin in April.

Empty seats behind the goalposts will do nothing to convince the Australians they should accede to league chairman Selwyn Pearson's push for an annual three-test series.

It is a young Kiwi side and they will certainly learn. But the Australians showed the professional gap that comes from breeding in the game.

* The speed of the Junior Kangaroos found their local counterparts out in the curtainraiser, with the visitors scoring nine tries to two from basic football played at high intensity to win 50-12.

Australia 28 (D. Lockyer, M. Gidley, L. Tuqiri, T. Barrett tries; R. Girdler 5 goals, A. Johns goal) New Zealand 10 (R. Paul, F. Meli tries; H. Paul goal). Halftime: 16-0.