Kiwis shock Emus in 50s cup final boil over

After copping an 8-4 loss against the green and golds in the round game, the cagey Kiwis side clearly outfoxed the Australian team that started the game strongly.

Kiwis coach John Tetini said immediately after the final, that injuries had forced team changes and these forced changes contributed to Tuesday’s round robin loss to the Aussies. “We had a couple of players with niggles, who are key players. For safety reasons we didn’t want to risk them.

Tetini nominated the Kiwis captain Jamie Laufiso for his final’s efforts, along with Peter McIntyre who sat out the Aussie game. The New Zealand coach also nominated Tony Langahetau, who scored twice for the dominant Kiwis.

The Kiwis preparation was also central to the side’s World Cup win. “We had an 18-month preparation for the World Cup and the majority of the team is based in Auckland, which helps a lot,” Tetini said.

“Our expectations coming into [the tournament] was to win gold. We knew Australia would be hard and give us a good game and they did.”

The Australians started the match well when the dangerous David Kafoa found his winger Amir Ayoub with a long-ball. Ayoub beat his opposite to crash over for a 1 nil lead to the green and golds.

Laufiso took it upon himself to hit back creating room off a sweep play for Langahetau to grab his first touchdown. It didn’t take long for the Aussies to hit back with John Samin wrapping around Shane Edwards, which caught the kiwis napping. This gave the Aussie a 2-1 lead.

With less than five minutes gone, the clever McIntyre fired a pass to David Pou who seemed to beat opposite Ayoub, who claimed the touch. The touchdown was awarded despite the Aussie winger’s protestations and the teams were level pegging again.

Minutes later with defence a seeming memory for both teams, Jordan ducked out of acting half 15 metres from the New Zealand line, drawing defenders. The Aussie centre sent a looping pass to right winger Peter McDonald who dived over for a 3-2 lead to the defending champs.

But from this point, the Kiwis totally dominated the match against the tiring Aussies with Laufiso, McIntyre and Pou who grabbed a double starring for the new World Cup champs.

Article by Anthony O'Brien