It took a late try for New Zealand to survive a scare from Samoa in their rugby league Four Nations second round match in Whangarei.
The Kiwis applied pressure in the final 15 minutes, and the try that eventually came was somewhat inevitable, giving them a 14-12 win.
For much of the game, it looked like a massive upset was on the cards. The heavily favoured Kiwis could not get their game going, making too many mistakes with ball in hand through poor passes and awful handling.
It was these errors which prevented them capitalising on the chances they did create, while also giving Samoa a let up and limiting the number of repeat sets, which restricted the pressure they were able to apply.
The result was a Samoan team who kept their tails up for much of the game, and as anyone who has ever seen them like this will tell you, there is nothing more dangerous. Their forwards got the better of the Kiwi forward pack, who constantly found themselves going backwards and unable to stop the Samoan forward momentum.
Samoa took a deserved 8-6 lead into half-time before extending it to 12-6 after BJ Leilua fended off his opposite Shaun Kenny-Dowell in what was a weak tackle effort.
Kenny-Dowell was far too high and tried to grab his man, rather than lead with the shoulder and then grab. The result was a try and it summed up all of New Zealand's problems to that point.
Eventually, though, New Zealand got some momentum, with Jason Taumalolo and Lewis Brown both providing good metres with ball in hand. The passes began to stick, and they began to force more repeat sets as Shaun Johnson and Kieran Foran regained control of the game.
In the end it told as the Kiwis were the stronger finishing of the two teams, and the final try certainly had an inevitability to it.
That said, it was a mighty effort from a Samoan team few gave any chance heading into the competition.
They have now given England and New Zealand scares in consecutive weeks and must fancy their chances against the world champions Australia, who were outclassed 30-12 by New Zealand a week ago.
For New Zealand, the win sees them boost their chances of making the final dramatically, although it was far tighter than they would have liked. You can never write off Australia and a win for them over England tomorrow would set up a final round where all three teams would have plenty to play for.
It was a win for Whangarei, too, as the 16,900-strong crowd remained in full voice right from the dramatic war-dance face-off at the start, through to the final whistle.
For rugby league to so successfully move to a smaller New Zealand city is huge for growing the game and will no doubt encourage a similar venue to be used in the future.
//from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1DFLL4p
via IFTTT November 01, 2014 at 02:48AM
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