How many times in the past week did you hear about the passion and emotion that the Kiwis will play with? David Kidwell's the new Kiwis coach, so how many times did you see or hear about that time he put Willie Mason on his backside? 

That yarn was rolled out plenty and it proved to be correct, there was never going to be an alternative.

How much did you hear about how good this Kiwis forward pack was? Almost as much as their passion, right?

Martin Taupau was the only Kiwis forward to run over 100m, thanks to being the only forward to take at least 10 carries.

Six Kangaroos forwards (Matt Scott, Shannon Boyd, Matt Gillet, Trent Merrin, Boyd Cordner and Sam Thaiday) took at least 10 carries for over 100m. Australia enjoyed a slight possession advantage (52%), giving them 228 touches of the footy vs 209 for the Kiwis along with 152 plat-the-balls vs 142 for the Kiwis; Australia had more footy but not that much that there should be such a disparity in the work of the forwards. 

On a very basic level, the strength of the Kangaroos is their play-making spine which is second to none while the perceived strength of this Kiwis side was supposed to be their forward pack. Australia's forwards would have done their job if they had maintained parity with the Kiwis forward pack, instead they dominated the Kiwis through the middle which only laid a beautiful platform for the likes of Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk, Jonathan Thurston and Darius Boyd to work their magic. Part of that magic was getting Greg Inglis the footy and Inglis again showed his class in the representative arena with a dominant display at left-centre.

That's not to say that the Kiwis were overly bad over in Perth as the Kangaroos scored many of their tries from random moments, moments reminding you that you make your own luck. The Kiwis defended strongly and the whack in their defence looked to come directly from Kidwell's influence, it was the sort of consistent whack that is only reserved for International footy or Origin footy. 

In the preview, I also highlighted that the big beast is the Four Nations and this Test wouldn't showcase everything that either team is working on. That was evident in the basic nature of how either team attacked, with the Kangaroos keeping their sweeping backline moves rather simple for example, or giving the footy to Inglis and Josh Dugan to take the first carry from a penalty kick tap, every damn time. The defence of either team was admirable, especially from the Kiwis as the Kangaroos weren't overly tested and the debut-defence from a guy like Solomone Kata was a pleasure, however this was done with fairly tame moves being thrown at them. 

A story to keep an eye on with the Kiwis is how the woes of the NZ Warriors appear to slid into the Kiwis set up. This was always a risk when you take Shaun Johnson and Thomas Leuluai from the Warriors and chuck them together in the Kiwis; the combination is there but so is the negative aspects of that combination. Far too often, Johnson put up a bomb that resulted in nothing which is exactly what you'd expect when you're giving Darius Boyd or Valentine Holmes a free catch when they're rockin' a Kangaroos jersey.

Pressure was easily applied on Johnson because Leuluai was a non-factor and this was precisely what Warriors fans endured this season. This isn't a poor reflection on Leuluai - despite putting a grubber dead when the spotlight was on him - it just points to a weird balance where Johnson is either tasked with or takes a tad too much footy. I'm interested to see how this develops and having Jordan Kahu (or Dallin Watene-Zelezniak) at fullback only amplifies this as Kahu isn't a ball-playing threat like Darius Boyd or even Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. Boyd pops up on either edge and adds a pair of fantastic hands, while Kahu is much more of a steady fullback and did a great job (safe as houses at the back) given that Tuivasa-Sheck has that spot locked down.

Johnson and Leuluai simply don't have the same kicking game as Thurston and Cronk. Take when Johnson puts up a bomb, 40m out down his right edge for example because that's when Thurston is putting a low kick through the defensive line, into a small patch of open pastures to pin the Kiwis down. That's Thurston's bread and butter and he's only joined by Cronk and Smith as players who kick through the line at that sort of level, then remember that the Kangaroos forward pack dominated the Kiwis. 

Johnson's a fantastic runner, however once again he opted not to run so much. When he did run, he straightened the attack, engaged the defence and slipped a short-ball to Kevin Proctor, who scored. Johnson ran 3 times for 17m, Leuluai ran just once for 6m while Thurston ran 7 times for 45m and Cronk ran 2 times for 45m.  Thurston and Johnson are the two best running halves of their halves pairings and Thurston put Johnson in the shade.

All of that though is all good and we can only assume that the Four Nations will see either team play slightly differently. I certainly don't think that we'll see a Kiwis forward pack with that much talent, churn through such a mundane performance again. If they do, then England and Australia have the play-makers to beat them. 

Couple of random notes...

Tohu Harris started the game on his left edge, before moving to the middle to make way for Manu Ma'u. I loved this as Harris is a strong defender and has some nifty footwork that is well-used through the middle, it also allows us to see Ma'u feature.

Solomone Kata had a decent debut, while Jordan Rapana didn't have the same impact off his wing as he had with the Raiders all season long. The Kangaroos would have made a point of stacking the bodies on Rapana and he was often swarmed, slammed on his back. Both Kata and Rapana had 3 tackle busts each, with Kata making 99m off 11 carries and Rapana 80m off 13 carries. 

Kata also featured strongly in the haka, with a ruthless pukana. Kata is an interesting case because he only came to Aotearoa in high school to play First XV rugby and while he has represented Tonga alongside Ma'u, Ma'u grew up in Auckland. What we should admire though is Kata was there at the front of the haka and played with the same pride and passion as he had for Tonga, he was even more enthusiastic than some of his Kiwis comrades. Kata has bought into representing the Kiwis, which was always going to be the case but should satisfy those around Aotearoa who questioned his selection.

I'd also suggest that the Kiwis culture opened Kata in with open arms and made him aware of the mana etc required.

Also playing a key role in the haka was Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and there was a bit of buzz around his selection. Unfortunately, Waerea-Hargreaves only ran for 27m off 4 carries which had him level with Lewis Brown in running for the least metres of any Kiwis forward ... and Brown only had 3 carries. Waerea-Hargreaves had an error and that high shot on Thurston as well, rounding off a super crappy game from him. Given the depth of this Kiwis forward pack with Greg Eastwood, Simon Mannering and Joseph Tapine sniffing for a spot, Waerea-Hargreaves didn't exactly demand future selection.

On time for Jason Nightingale, aka the Gypsy as he took the most carries of any Kiwis player. Gypsy had 19 carries for 128m with a tackle bust and an offload, while Taupau's 129m off 10 carries with 5 tackle busts, an offload and a line break were the best for the Kiwis.