The Four Nations got underway on Saturday night with a pair of captivating rugby league matches that lived up to the pre match hype and rewarded the huge Suncorp Stadium crowd.
In the showpiece match the Kiwi’s upset an injured and disorientated Australian team to record their first victory over their fierce rivals for four years. That match followed a Samoa / England curtain raiser that defied the tag to deliver a contest befitting of its own feature.
The Four Nations is now much more than a one horse race; the Australians look vulnerable.
Australia v New Zealand
In a match of high drama but little quality New Zealand exploited some Australian rustiness to surprise the Rugby League World and win 30-18. Australia, already without a number of key players also lost Daly Cherry Evans and Greg Inglis half way through the game to injury and illness. The injuries turned the Australian into rabbles. Robbie Farah and Cameron Smith jumped between hooker and the haves, Dylan Walker made a number of errors filling in at fullback, and Aidan Guerra couldn’t stop the Kangaroo’s frail defence when he moved into the centres. The changes were too much for the Australians; their completion rate suffered, and they failed to score a point after the 21st minute.
But the night belonged to a gutsy New Zealand side that, to be fair, weren’t without their own personnel setbacks. The Kiwi’s responded well to periods of the game where they should’ve gone behind, should’ve dropped their heads. The first was Beau Scott’s soft minute try, which was closely followed by Jason Nightingale butchering a try over the line. Kiwi teams of yesteryear would have given it away, but Steven Kearney’s 2014 version responded brilliantly with tries to Kevin Procter and Lewis Brown either side of another soft effort from Greg Inglis.
The second half saw the Kiwis take advantage of more Australian mistakes and in turn play with a lot more confidence and enterprise. The offloads of Jesse Bromwich and Adam Blair allowed the likes of Shaun Johnson and Keiran Foran to run at a broken defensive line to make the inroads which stretched the lead. Dean Whare, Shaun Johnson and Jason Nightingale all crossed the line to extend the winning margin to the biggest win over their rivals since the 24-0 win in the 2005 Four Nations final.
The Kiwi’s will take a heap of confidence from their dazzling display, and will take heart in the fact that the rest of the tournament is to be played on home soil. The win should also galvanise the belief in a number of squad members who had yet to experience a wine against the Kangaroos.
England v Samoa
As the beaten semi-finalists at last years Rugby League World Cup England should have been too strong for the tournament debutants, however they only narrowly avoided a shock loss to Samoa. Samoa’s stirring effort in going down 26-32 proved their inclusion in the Four Nations was justified. Feeding off a passionate Samoan based crowd the NRL-packed Samoan line up tested their more favoured opponents and even lead by 2 with 19 minutes remaining. England did just enough; led by outstanding talisman James Graham and experienced pivot Gareth Widdop they were ultimately too strong.
The English exerted most of their pressure through reigning Super League Man of Steele Daryl Clark who was a constant threat with ball in hand, while the Tomkins brothers (Sam and Joel) also combined well and both crossed for tries.
For the unlucky Samoan’s they’ll be better for the experience and will also get the chance to make adjustments to their side and reintroduce their suspended stars. One such change should be the inclusion of Pita Godinet who provided a real spark from dummy half and kept his side in the game with two well-taken tries. Frank Pritchard was immense too. His switch of allegiance will add massive value to the Samoan Four Nations campaign. Their efforts to back up their dazzling first up effort will be interesting to watch.
We’ll review Week Two of the Four Nations later in the week.
