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Australia laid down a marker for next week’s Four Nations final in Brisbane with a comfortable 34-20 win over New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday.
The two sides will do battle again at Suncorp Stadium next Saturday with the Kangaroos chalking up a psychological blow as a side containing four debutants, and seven changes to the one that beat England in Melbourne last week, silenced the noisy home crowd of just over 44,000.
The performance also made a mockery of claims from the New Zealand media that Australia were disrespecting the game by fielding a weakened team as a full-strength Kiwi outfit were put to the sword.
Halfback Cooper Cronk opened the scoring in the eighth minute with a superb individual effort, brushing aside three tackles to score in the left corner to give Tim Sheens’ side the perfect start.
A Benji Marshall penalty narrowed the lead, but Brett Morris and Brent Tate extended the advantage to leave the hosts shellshocked.
A Frank Pritchard try 11 minutes before the break led to the best spell of play for Stephen Kearney’s side, who pinned the Kangaroos deep in their own half as the opening stanza came to a close.
Marshall added a penalty with the last play of the half when David Shillington was penalised for unloading a flurry of punches on Kiwi hooker Issac Luke to leave the score 18-10 at the break.
The second period started in a similar manner to the first with Darius Boyd, preferred at fullback to Billy Slater, racing over after good work from the impressive Tate, with the crowd still taking their seats.
Chris Lawrence then marked his debut with a try made in Leichhardt, latching onto a quick grubber kick from Wests Tigers teammate Robbie Farah to barge his way over the line.
Morris then added his second of the game in the 58th minute, with Tate once more instrumental in the move.
The frustration of seeing their side being outplayed was too much for a large section of the crowd who started to throw missiles towards the playing area.
Their disappointment was abated somewhat when Jason Nightingale and Shaun Kenny-Dowall went over for late consolation tries, but the final scoreline somewhat flattered the home side.
Stand-in Kangaroos skipper Cameron Smith was in fine form with the boot, kicking three goals, with Todd Carney, who enjoyed a solid debut, converting three.
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