Kiwis no match for Australia
Australia landed a psychological blow ahead of next week's Four Nations final as they beat New Zealand 34-20 in Auckland on Saturday.
Last Updated: 06/11/10 10:59am
Australia landed a significant psychological blow ahead of next weekend's Four Nations final as they comprehensively beat New Zealand in the final round of group matches on Saturday.
Australia chose to rest a number of their star names, including skipper Darren Lockyer and full-back Billy Slater, for the dress rehearsal in Auckland but still had too much in the tank for their opponents.
Cooper Cronk, Brett Morris (two), Brent Tate, Darius Boyd and Chris Lawrence all went over for the Kangaroos who were always in control after establishing an early lead.
The only redeeming feature of the defeat for New Zealand was the superlative performance of skipper Benji Marshall, who kicked five goals and set up a couple of late tries for Jason Nightingale and Shaun Kenny-Dowall.
Australia had seized control of the contest inside 23 minutes as they surged into an 18-2 lead, Cronk opening the scoring with a superb angled run to touch down in the left corner.
Immaculate
Tate then sent in Morris out wide before going over himself to increase the advantage and all three tries were converted by the immaculate boot of acting captain Cameron Smith.
Substitute forward Frank Pritchard bulldozed through a couple of tackles to pull a try back for the home side on 30 minutes and Marshall and Issac Luke kicked penalty goals to make it 18-10 at the interval.
But the visitors quickly killed off any hopes of a New Zealand fightback with two further scores early in the second period.
Morris produced a superb inside pass to send over Boyd before Lawrence marked his international debut by powering over.
Morris then demonstrated his pace and finishing ability to burst down the touchline before scoring under the posts to put the Australians well and truly out of sight on 70 minutes with another debutant, Todd Carney, landing a couple of conversions to make the scoreline 34-10.
But New Zealand did at least finish on a high to give themselves a little momentum heading into next week's showdown in Brisbane.
Some wonderful sleight of hand from Marshall sent in first Nightingale and the same player was at it again to release Kenny-Dowall, who thundered over to give the final score an air of respectability.
