Kiwis In England - Not A Good Start
Dear England, may rugby league rise!
You would be forgiven for thinking that the Kiwis were playing their first game of their English tour this morning, such was the lack of cohesion or intensity from the Kiwis. Going down 26-12 in game one of the series (not the tour) isn't the end of the world with two more games to salvage not only the series but also the standards set by the Kiwis in recent times.
The cobwebs were apparently brushed off in the game against Leeds a week ago, although many flaws were on repeat against England. In fact, many flaws were exposed by an English team who put the Kiwis under more pressure and limited the impact of the Kiwis' key attacking weapons. One of those key attacking weapons is Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and any time he carried the footy, whether returning a kick or chiming in on attack, was greeted by three or four defenders. Tuivasa-Sheck makes defenders look silly yet trying to step your way through an eager defensive line isn't the easiest thing to do and you can tip your hat to England's coach and Roosters assistant coach Steve McNamara for ensuring that Tuivasa-Sheck was always met with a flat line of defenders.
While the lack of any sort of accurate kicking game was a stand out from this game, the Kiwis' forwards were out-played by their opponents. Both are hugely worrying from a Kiwis perspective but England showed that they are on the rise, similar to the rise of the Kiwis and the intensity and aggression shown by England's forwards gave them the advantage through the middle. Tom Burgess was immense, bumping people off for fun while fellow forwards Chris Hill, Brett Ferres, Mike Cooper, Sean O'Loughlin and James Graham locked down the middle of the field. These lads lack the collective skill and power of the Kiwis yet they were crucial in slowing the Kiwis down as they got numbers into every tackle and more importantly showed up for every tackle. They are all busy and get through their share of the work which sets up an intriguing battle between the forwards next week.
The Kiwis' struggles in the halves, which were evident in the game against Leeds were compounded by England's dominance up the guts. Tuimoala Lolohea and Peta Hiku were often kicking off of slow play the balls and thus under pressure, plus they were called on to kick long far too often as the Kiwis struggled to get out of their own half. If it wasn't Lolohea or Hiku kicking, it was Issac Luke kicking out of dummy half and this combination usually resulted in a kick that landed short inside England's half ... and down the throat of the impressive Zak Hardaker or one of England's wingers.
Oh how the Kiwis would benefit from having Gareth Widdop or James Roby in their side. Roby was a key man in closing the game out for England as he showed Luke how to kick out of dummy half and Widdop played his usual steady hand. The nature of the Kiwis halves lends itself to free-flowing attack, not a gritty Test match in which territory and the battle through the middle are the order of the day. England had these bases covered, hence they won.
Mistakes and daft penalties were lumped on top of being dominated in the forwards and the lack of a classy half. Any good possession the Kiwis enjoyed usually resulted in a lost ball, stemming from their exciting desire to offload which always contains a certain level of risk. Early on the Kiwis looked good popping offloads out, running England around and giving the many dynamic runners the opportunity to run at a scrambling England defence. Once the grind started though and England began to strangle the Kiwis ... and the Kiwis started to strangle themselves thanks to errors, England exposed a tiring Kiwis team.
That early part of the game included a few slick Kiwis backline moves, which earned them points and a disallowed try. When England started to get back into the game though, the Kiwis appeared to be still on the training ground, trying different moves instead of executing their moves efficiently. I'm not sure how or why this was the case as they have had a great build up to this first Test and the Kiwis' attack looked a bit hectic, especially compared to recent wins over Australia where speed and power allowed them to keep things simple.
Poor is probably the best word to describe the Kiwis first up performance and when you combine that with a strong game from England, you find yourself 1-0 down. The most encouraging thing for me though about this game was England's efforts and their desire to make this an exciting series by grabbing a win in their first game. England showed their hand and we now await game two in London as this series goes up a level on my excitement gauge.