Australia gained a modicum of revenge for their shock World Cup final defeat at the hands of New Zealand last November by routing The Kiwis 38-10 at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on Friday.
The Kangaroos led 16-6 at the interval after tries from Israel Folau, Johnathan Thurston and Justin Hodges, with New Zealand’s sole try coming by way of Sam Perrett.
Thurston crossed again just after the restart before Billy Slater effectively put the game beyond New Zealand.
The spirited Kiwis responded through Manu Vatuvei but a bloodthirsty Australian side added further scores through Darius Boyd and Hodges again to put the seal on a confidence-restoring win.
Given that New Zealand had shocked Australia, and indeed the rugby league world, by lifting the World Cup in the very same stadium just five months ago, the opening minutes were predictably frenetic. That, unsurprisingly, resulted in a succession of early errors.
And one such error indirectly led to the game’s opening try, an Iosia Solialo turnover gifting The Kangaroos a scrum ten metres out from the Kiwi line. Billy Slater drifted off the back of the set-piece, moving the ball on to Darren Lockyer. That drew the attention of Kiwi centres, meaning that when Lockyer swiftly flipped it wide, it took nothing more than the most straightforward of passes from Hodges to put Boyd over in the right corner.
Credit to New Zealand, though, they responded superbly, pinning The Kangaroos back inside their own 20 for the rest of the quarter.
And their pressure was finally rewarded in the 19th minute. Glenn Stewart turned the ball over in midfield and New Zealand eventually capitalised, the ever-alert Nathan Fien and Bronson Harrison combining to put Perrett through to score.
Benji Marshall converted to edge New Zealand into a deserved two-point lead but their advantage did not last long.
Barely five minutes after Perrett’s touchdown, Thurston, with the aid of a sumptuous dummy, ghosted through to score.
New Zealand continued to boss things in terms of possession but they visibly tired as the half wore on and there was an air of inevitability about Australia’s third try, Hodges stepping inside a horribly weak challenge from Fa’alogo to race through and score under the posts.
Thurston’s subsequent conversion meant that there were ten points between the sides at the break.
New Zealand, of course, had trailed at half time in the World Cup final, meaning a comeback remained a distinct possibly. However, within two minutes of the restart, The Kangaroos had extended their advantage.
Lockyer combined beautifully with Stewart inside the Kiwi 20 and the latter went to within inches of the whitewash before having the ball swatted from his grasp. However, Thurston was on hand to gather and he acrobatically dived over the ruck of players in front of him to score his second try of the game.
Moments later and it was game over, with Slater slamming the ball over the line after some terrific passing in midfield from The Kangaroos had left the New Zealand defence chasing shadows.
New Zealand kept battling and Vatuvei barged over in the left corner in the 63rd minute to finish off what was arguably the move of the match from either side.
Australia were in no mood to ease up in the final quarter, though, and Boyd helped himself to a try when he somehow managed to avoid being forced into touch before grounding the ball in the left corner.
The Kangaroos looked like they were going to score every single time they attacked. Slater was unlucky to have a try disallowed some ten minutes before the end but he did not let him bother him and promptly created a try for Hodges moments later.