Australia were far too slick for Aotearoa in Perth last weekend, their forward pack rolled all over the famed Kiwis forward pack which allowed their spine consisting of three legends to do whatever they wanted. This once again highlight what many of us have had to sit through all season in watching the New Zealand Warriors with Shaun Johnson and Thomas Leuluai struggling to influence the game, although when they are coming up against Jonathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk, their weaknesses are amplified.

Johnson and Leuluai put in a similar performance to what we saw with the Warriors this season, largely due to the lack of go-forward from the forward pack. The Kangaroos forward pack plain and simply put the Kiwis forward pack in the shade, as was the case in nearly every game that the Warriors played this season and that's where we need to consider the context of the Perth fixture. I highly doubt we will see this Kiwis forward pack struggle to maintain parity with Australia and England in the Four Nations and I would also suggest that David Kidwell may have kept a few tricks up his sleeves as the likes of Jesse Bromwich and Jason Taumalolo played deep into the NRL Finals, so there's no need for them to play big minutes in a pre-Four Nations fixture.

If the Kiwis forward pack is at the very least maintaining parity with their opposition, Johnson and Leuluai will be put in different situations to what they found themselves in Perth ... situations that they found themselves in with the Warriors all season long. One of the more frustrating aspects on Johnson's play is the mid-field bomb, which he puts up 40m out from the opposition try-line and ends up being a default 'hand the footy over' play.

Johnson falls back to this kick because he's simply not close enough to the opposition try-line to put in a creeper of a grubber that finds green pasture and sits in the in-goal. That's hardly Johnson's fault as a couple more metres from each carry prior to that final play would push the Kiwis to within 30m of the try-line, thus allowing Johnson a few more options with his kicks.

There are two more factors at work here as Johnson isn't Thurston, nor does Johnson have Cronk alongside him. The wizardry of Thurston is that you rarely see him put a towering bomb up as Thurston is more skilled in the art of putting a low kick through the defensive line, perfectly placed into a vacant (teeny-weeny) space left by the fullback and wingers. That's the sort of kick that only Thurston can pull off consistently because it's a bloody difficult kick that requires Thurston to carry the footy right up to the defensive line, hence Thurston gets smashed all the time. Johnson just can't do that, neither can many NRL halves.

Johnson also feels plenty of pressure, especially against a team like the Kangaroos who are keen to pick at any minor weakness. The Kangaroos could bank on Johnson getting the footy most of the time on the final play, meaning that they can gamble on sending bodies his way and forcing a rushed kick or as we saw in Perth, a pass, forcing Jordan Rapana and Kevin Proctor into kicking.

The Kiwis are going to struggle in the Four Nations if Johnson is taking 12 kicks, while Leuluai is kicking 4 times and Issac Luke just once as they did in Perth. Compare that balance to that of the Aussies with Thurston kicking 6 times, Cronk 8 times and Cameron Smith 4 times; you genuinely don't know who is going to kick from that Kangaroos spine while you'd get some money back if you bet on Johnson kicking more often than not.

People seem to have fairly high expectations of Johnson, yet it comes as no surprise that his best work has been alongside Kieran Foran. Foran demands equal (if not more) attention as Johnson and is a better all-round half than Johnson, which allows Johnson to play with more freedom. This brings me back to an issue I've had with Johnson at the Warriors for a while now as Johnson is either tasked with, or wants to be a halfback who does everything. I've rarely seen Johnson control a game of footy expertly like the best halfbacks do and that's fine because he's not that sort of half; he's a half who needs to run first instead of worrying about shoveling the footy on to someone else or kicking under great pressure.

Johnson set up Proctor's try by boosting forward a few steps, engaging the defence and sliding a short-pass to Proctor. Any time Johnson runs, defenders have to take notice and show him respect, the problem comes when Johnson tries or is tasked with doing everything else, thus taking away from what he does best.

Also interesting when pondering the Kiwis halves pairing is the fullback, who was Jordan Kahu in Perth and could be Dallin Watene-Zelezniak over in England. Neither of these two offer the dynamic running and ball-playing that Roger Tuivasa-Sheck offers, while they definitely don't have the ball-playing ability of Darius Boyd. Having a fullback of that calibre makes a big difference to how defences react, or put pressure on the halves and without a Boyd or Tuivasa-Sheck, the Kiwis halves lack an attacking option which makes them fairly easy prey.

The balance between Leuluai and Johnson plaqued the Warriors this season, as did a forward pack that was often a non-factor. As I expect the Kiwis forwards to play much better than they did in Perth when the Four Nations starts, it'll be very interesting to see how the Kiwis halves go about their work. Australia showed how big the gap in quality is between Thurston/Cronk and Leuluai/Johnson, while England will be super solid across the park under Wayne Bennett and this won't leave much margin for error from the Kiwis halves.