2016 Four Nations: England vs Kiwis Preview
Slowly brewin'
While Australia ease into the Four Nations against Scotland, our Kiwis will take on England in a contest that will tell us all we need to know about the Four Nations and international rugby league. Late last year we saw that the Kiwis don't need to be missing too many pieces of their full-strength puzzle, to fall victim to England and with England now being coached by Wayne Bennett, as well as calling on the services of Sam Burgess, it's difficult to label the Kiwis as favourites for this game.
I'm sitting straight down the middle and I'm chuffed to do so because having three teams who are rather evenly matched is a great place for international rugby league to be in. David Kidwell has opted to roll with the same team that were mediocre in defeat to the Kangaroos a few weeks ago and trying to decipher this decision from Kidwell confuses me a tad, although I can see some logic in it. Who knows whether the Kiwis were holding a few things back in Perth, or if they just sucked, that the same group of players now has an opportunity to right the ship and rectify that performance is fairly sensible if you ask me.
In Perth, we saw Shaun Johnson and Thomas Leuluai struggle to offer any sort of control or to apply pressure on the Kangaroos. We'll all be keeping close tabs on how these two go about dismantling England's defence, however the work of Jordan Kahu at fullback and how the Kiwis forward pack performs will be far more important in making the job of their halves a whole lot easier and thus steering the Kiwis to victory.
Kahu is an excellent footy player and one of my favourite kiwi lads to observe in the NRL with Brisbane. The thing with Kahu though is that he rarely plays fullback for the Broncos and is usually swapping between centre or wing, with Darius Boyd at fullback. Boyd put Kahu in the shade in that Perth Test, with Boyd rolling through 14 carries, 134m, 3 tackle busts and a line break while Kahu had 12 carries, 76m, a tackle bust and an offload.
How Kahu features in attack for the Kiwis will be crucial as he has all the skills required to add a quality pair of hands into backline moves and he's a strong runner of the footy. In Perth, the Kiwis were stagnant on attack which came with Kahu not playing a huge role in offering a third ball-playing presence as Boyd does with a touch of wizardry. England will be solid, especially defensively and they'll be eager to do a similar job on the Kiwis as Australia did last time around, so Kahu's involvement and how he connects with Johnson and Leuluai will go a long way to determining how many points the Kiwis score. Kahu hasn't played a whole lot of fullback at NRL level, nor has he spent a whole lot of time playing with Johnson and Leuluai, so expect that combination to be a lot better this weekend.
Then we have the forwards, who were shown up by the Kangaroos and could suffer the same result against England. England's forward pack won't be easily steam-rolled and the likes of the Burgess bros, James Graham, Mike Cooper, Elliott Whitehead and Chris Hill will be on a mission to ensure that the Kiwis don't get a roll-on.
Martin Taupau was the best forward in Perth because of his speed, footwork and power which sums up the Kiwis forwards at their best. Expect the Kiwis to assault the ruck area with the footwork of Taupau, Jesse Bromwich, Jason Taumalolo and Tohu Harris who will cut back in-field when he starts on the edge and as we saw in Perth, Harris could move to the middle to make way for Manu Ma'u. England have some big forwards who lack a bit of mobility and the Kiwis have the opposite, plus they have Issac Luke who is the perfect hooker for this job.
This England side looks strong, gritty, rugged etc but perhaps the lack some x-factor and power. In that sense, they reflect Wayne Bennett as they'll show up consistently for each other and will rely more on effort and determination, rather than flair. This could play into the hands of the Kiwis as this team named by Kidwell features speed and footwork in abundance, we just didn't see that combined with any intent in Perth.
We didn't see much intent in Perth. There wasn't much intent to use that speed and footwork to their advantage, nor was their much intent to fire any threatening shots with the footy. England will eat that up and will look to slow this game down, so how the Kiwis go about stamping their mark on this game in dictating how it's played will either play into England's hands, or blow them away.