MICHAEL HAGAN: Kangaroos have Joey in their sights but whole mob needed to catch Kiwi on the hop

Joey Manu plays centre and sometimes fills in at five-eighth for the Roosters, and is starring at fullback for New Zealand but he’s playing like an extra forward at the World Cup. 

He’s been their dominant go-to guy and when the Kangaroos take on the Kiwis in our semi-final this weekend, our tactics will be geared around a shared responsibility when it comes to limiting his effectiveness.

It’s very much a team approach when you’re trying to handle someone like him who bobs up everywhere. You can’t just put the assignment down to one or two players to target him on their own. 

We’ve got a bit of intelligence in camp from a few of his Roosters teammates in James Tedesco, Angus Crichton and Lindsay Collins as well as plenty of blokes who have played a lot against him in the NRL. 

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The kicking game is a crucial part to how we combat him. I didn’t think our kicking game was good enough against Lebanon so that’s something we need to get right.

(Photo by Ashley Allen/Getty Images)

That responsibility falls back on Nathan Cleary as our halfback but also to our dummy-halves, Ben Hunt and Harry Grant – they can create some variety there as well along with Cameron Munster.

Manu is nearly playing like an extra ball-playing forward in the middle. He’s looking for a genuine quick play-the-ball and then he’s either running from dummy-half or he’s standing at first receiver or putting himself in a position to break tackles or supply an off-load.

He’s always around the ball. It’s not like he’s only bobbing up on an edge after a sweep play. He’s doing that in good-ball areas but it’s more about his consistent efforts around the ball that we need to watch. 

Our middle third defenders are going to have to make a lot of tackles on him. He’s big for a fullback and we’re going to have to put a few bodies on him to stop him breaking free or setting up teammates for breaks. 

He reminds me of the kid in the under 8s who the coach would just say give that player the ball and everyone else follow what he does. 

They’ve got Joseph Tapine, Jesse Bromwich, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, James Fisher-Harris and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves who can all generate fast ruck speed for him to cash in on. 

That’s the real focal point that we’ve got to sort out which is easier said than done. 

Teams have been slowing the ruck down against us all tournament – there was one last week against Lebanon when Tedesco found his front close to the try line when he was tackled and the refs allowed the defenders to swarm all over him. 

I counted it as a nine-second play-the-ball. We were still good enough to score on the next play when Latrell Mitchell touched down in the left-hand corner but it’ll be much tougher against New Zealand if that’s going to be the interpretation. 

We know Test footy is different to the NRL and the speed won’t be as fast but with Ashley Klein refereeing this weekend’s game, we’re hoping it’s going to be more like what we’re accustomed to seeing. 

If I was playing against us I’d be looking to get as many players into every tackle to slow the ball down as much as possible.

We’re not whingeing and we’re not looking for any favours, we’re just saying it’s an observation that we’ve noticed and that it’d be great for it to be refereed more consistently.

Mal Meninga has said that from the start that Test footy’s different, tournament play in a World Cup can take some getting used to and we’re rolling with the punches. 

We don’t want to be the victim. That’s not what we’re about. We’ve just got to get on with it and play our best footy. 

Michael Maguire has got the Kiwis getting three defenders into the tackle more than any other team in the tournament, including us. There’s no secret about their tactics and we’ve got to try to find a way to counter that. 

(Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

Fiji did well against New Zealand and nearly caused an upset but we’re not going to work off that game too much. We’re going to face a Kiwis side with a different mindsight this weekend. 

They always seem to get themselves up for a game against the Kangaroos and they probably had one eye on this game, a bit like us when we played Lebanon. 

When Teddy went off at half-time against the Cedars, I thought we lost our way a little bit so it will be good to have a couple more experienced guys in Hunt and Reagan Campbell-Gillard back in the starting side this week. 

A few of our key players last week got frustrated and were impatient with the ball because we weren’t allowed to play fast like they would be in the NRL. We’ve got to be more disciplined. 

(Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

While it wasn’t our best performance, we did still win by 50 and after 320 minutes of game time over here, we’ve only conceded three tries, all from kicks. 

The Lebanon game was the first time we had our right edge playing together in Liam Martin, Nathan Cleary, Jack Wighton and Valentine Holmes and they combined really well. 

Josh Addo-Carr was players’ player with five tries but Val wasn’t far behind him for his efforts on the other wing.

His carries from the backfield were exceptional with how hard he runs the ball back and Wighton jumped in on the back of that with more aggression. 

We’ve achieved our first goal, which was to get to a semi-final. Samoa’s win over Tonga last weekend shows that the favourites don’t always win. 

If we don’t respect the football and if we don’t play at a high standard then we won’t be playing in the final, it’s as simple as that. 

Kangaroos team to face New Zealand

Elland Road, Leeds on Friday night (Saturday 6.45am AEDT)
1 James Tedesco (c)
9 Josh Addo-Carr
6 Reagan Campbell-Gillard
13 Patrick Carrigan
2 Daly Cherry-Evans
14 Nathan Cleary
16 Reuben Cotter
17 Angus Crichton
18 Tino Fa’asuamaleaui
20 Harry Grant
4 Valentine Holmes
3 Ben Hunt
21 Liam Martin
8 Latrell Mitchell
7 Cameron Munster
11 Cameron Murray
5 Jake Trbojevic
10 Jack Wighton
24 Isaah Yeo