7 May 2011

Kiwis fall again in Anzac Test

11:50 am on 7 May 2011

The Kangaroos' dominance of the Anzac rugby league Test continued as they stayed in the grind and eventually prevailed on the back of the Kiwis' generosity to win a close battle 20-10 at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast on Friday night.

The game started horrendously for the Kiwis, losing prop Sam Rapira to a broken finger and conceding a try within the first six minutes, however the New Zealanders defence was inspirational considering the wealth of possession the Kangaroos enjoyed and coach Stephen Kearney will take plenty of positives from the match.

After Kiwi winger Matthew Duffie scored on debut in the 26th minute the two sides kept going at each other without either wilting.

For 42 minutes, the score remained 10-6 in Australia's favour, both defending resolutely, in the face of constant fire.

The Kiwis found ways of repelling the Kangaroos through inspirational defence, no example better than Simon Mannering's stunning effort to cut down Jamahl Idris when he seemed certain to score right on half-time.

Ultimately though the error rate became too much for the New Zealanders to counter.

Captain Benji Marshall says as valiantly as they defended, the Kiwis did little to help their cause by turning over too much possession at the wrong end of the field, conceding that handling lapses hurt them with all four Australian tries resulting from New Zealand mistakes, three of them directly so.