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Scores updated regularly. REFRESH NOW
Australia vs New Zealand |
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|---|---|---|
Four Nations 2016 |
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| Ricoh Arena, Coventry | ||
| Australia | New Zealand | |
| 14 | SCORE | 8 |
| 2 | Tries | 2 |
| 1 | Conversions | 0 |
| 2 | Penalty Goals | 0 |
Australia have made it two for two at the 2016 Four Nations tournament, knocking off New Zealand by six points.
» Five talking points from the match
» Match report: Australia hold off NZ
Final score
New Zealand 8
Australia 14
Australia face their nemesis New Zealand in Round 2 of the Rugby League Four Nations tournament in Coventry. Join us on The Roar from 7pm AEDT for live coverage.
Both teams secured important wins in their first hitouts – Australia comfortably beating Scotland 54-12 and New Zealand scraping past host nation England 17-16 with a Shaun Johnson drop-goal the difference.
Australian coach Mal Meninga threw something of a spanner into the game’s lead up when announcing his squad, resting joint 2016 Dally M Medallist Cooper Cronk and replacing him with North Queensland half Michael Morgan. Some pundits saw this selection as arrogance from the tournament favourites, others for the pragmatic action that it surely is. In any event, it may add a bit of fuel to New Zealand’s fire.
The other big news from the Australian camp during the week was a serious knee injury to winger Josh Mansour. His torn ACL will see him on the sidelines for the better part of a year – horrible news for this tournament and more importantly, for Panther fans back home. Valentine Holmes will come in to cover.
As for the men from the land of the long white cloud, New Zealand coach David Kidwell has a host of injury concerns from the win over England. Prop Jared Waerea-Hargraves is out with a leg issue, he’s replaced by Greg Eastwood. Gerard Beale also comes onto a wing to replace Jason Nightingale who has hurt an ankle.
As always in the international game, the battle of two massive forward packs will have a direct influence on how the game plays out. Big, big prop Shannon Boyd has made quite the impact in his first two internationals for Australia and will look to keep that good form going.
Boyd, Matt Scott and David Klemmer will back themselves to set a good platform for Morgan and Thurston, while Kiwi halfback Shaun Johnson is relying on Jesse Bromwich and Adam Blair to get rolling. You can be certain that joint 2016 Dally M medallist and human wrecking ball Jason Taumalolo will get a lot of carries as well.
The ‘X factor’ for this game is the format of the tournament – with both teams only needing to win their games against England to make the final, New Zealand may well be forgiven for having one eye on their next game against Scotland, a certain win you would expect. Will that have an impact, or will the pride of international football be enough to make this one a blockbuster?
Prediction
While players like Morgan and Holmes are new to the international game, Morgan is well used to playing with Jonathan Thurston and Holmes is a premiership winger. There’s still more than enough quality to get the job done.
Australia by 6.
Join us from 7am AEDT for live coverage on The Roar.