The joy of sport is that the yin and yang of life exists as the foundation of a sporting contest. To have victory you need loss and unfortunately for Aotearoa, Tonga's emotional victory came at the expense of our little flight-less bird. Hindsight is glorious, yet it was hard to ignore the feeling that this was just how it was supposed to go down and with that in mind, we can move forward without any negative vibes. Who knows how this Rugby League World Cup will play out, but in terms of the bigger picture, that single result doesn't mean much.

That doesn't mean we can overlook that some very serious flaws in the Kiwis performance, although they aren't flaws that I'm overly worried about. A completion rate of 68 percent is horrible and you'll struggle to beat any international team coughing up so much ball, especially as this stops you from getting you to your kick. Aotearoa couldn't engage Tonga in a set-for-set grind, in no way, shape or form did Aotearoa make Tonga work hard to earn field position, forcing their forwards to work off their own 10m-line. 

More penalties and errors than Tonga simply invited Tonga into Kiwis territory. Some of this was just plain weird and a sign that the footy lords weren't having a bar of Aotearoa winning; Russell Packer trying to throw a 20m pass, Simon Mannering fluffing a short-side play. These are straight up weird instances and the fact that Aotearoa couldn't get themselves in a position to force more than a single goal-line droppie kinda sums things up. You'd think that building pressure, earning repeat sets and asking Tonga to do plenty of intense defence would have been part of the plan. David Kidwell may have had that plan drawn up, yet it's impossible to execute when you making such fundamental errors.

Fundamental errors that I believe were an anomaly. 

Other than playing their part in sparking that wave of Tongan momentum, Aotearoa were actually pretty good. What is most encouraging for me is that Aotearoa did a nice job in laying the platform and competing with Tonga in terms of making metres, the issue was that from that platform Aotearoa made weird errors. Much has been said about Tonga's forward pack, yet Aotearoa averaged 10.58m/carry compared to Tonga's 9.62m/carry; almost a full metre more per-carry.

If Aotearoa got steam-rolled, I'd be worried. Instead, they kinda beat themselves with errors and weird shenanigans, which if they serve up against Fiji, will also lead to defeat. You can't expect Aotearoa to go back to back with such performances though and if they can actually establish a rhythm to their game where they complete sets, build pressure and force Fiji to worry about their defence instead giving them a powhiri into their attacking zone, all should be good. 

Coach Kidwell has brought in Te Maire Martin to partner Shaun Johnson and with Danny Levi to start at hooker, Kodi Nikorima slides back to the bench. One mainstream kiwi media outlet got rather dramatic about Thomas Leuluai and Nikorima being 'dropped' and while that's true for Leuluai, with Levi moving into the starting side, Aotearoa needed a utility on the bench and Nikorima is the best option for that job.

Leuluai either starts, or doesn't play. Nikorima consistently shines in a bench role where he adds some serious spice around the ruck and this combination is fairly exciting given how often Levi scoots out of dummy half, then Nikorima's x-factor will be added into the mix. I simply haven't seen Martin or Nikorima play enough alongside Johnson against quality opposition to make a judgement on who is the better option in the halves. The depth is such that Aotearoa can seriously enhance the attacking funk around the ruck, without losing anything in the halves. 

Perhaps Martin will prove himself to be a better operator in the halves and prior to RLWC, I was cautious about Nikorima being selected in the halves as he's awfully similar to Johnson. This didn't quite work out for Brisbane Broncos either with Nikorima and Anthony Milford similar in how they play footy; two razzle dazzle halves rarely works. Again, I haven't seen enough concrete evidence to move from a hunch to sussing that situation but Martin's typical halves play does feel better suited to playing with Johnson. 

I've always love Nikorima coming off the bench for Brisbane as well, so I'm excited to see how this pans out. If you enjoyed the yarn, hit an ad to show your support and make a donation to the Niche Cache. You'll be making a donation without having to pay anything, or do anything. Or you can jump on Patreon and become a Niche Cache Patron. Yeah bo, we're on Patreon so if that's your buzz, support a cuz.

Peace and love 27.