2022 Rugby League World Cup: Three Key Trends About Aotearoa Kiwis Footy
Aotearoa Kiwis start their Rugby League World Cup campaign on Monday morning against Lebanon and regardless of what their opponents offer, Aotearoa Kiwis have laid out some key aspects of their footy under coach Michael Maguire. Aotearoa will then face Jamaica and Ireland, with all three of these games to be played at the glorious breakfast time of 7:30am. All three games should be won by Aotearoa and they will need to maintain high standards as an almighty challenge will be waiting for Aotearoa in the semi-finals.
Coach Maguire is a grizzly geezer and a constant thread throughout his career is defensive nous. Folks don't associate defence with Aotearoa Kiwis, let alone the importance of defence in Test footy and as coach Maguire has connected with Aotearoa vibes, defence has been at the forefront of their footy. This started slowly as Aotearoa conceded 36 points to England in losing the 2018 Denver Test and Aotearoa then defeated Australia 26-24 later that year.
Two games with Aotearoa's opponents scoring 36 and 24 points against them. Aotearoa toured England to wind up 2018 and lost the first two Tests, conceding 18 and 20 points. Aotearoa then won the final Test 34-0 and while the series was already lost, this signals a wee bit of growth in Aotearoa's defence under coach Maguire.
Aotearoa played four Tests in 2019, conceding 14 points or less in a Test against Tonga and two Tests against Great Britain. Aotearoa suffered a 4-26 loss to Australia prior to the Great Britain series and this was parlayed into a 26-6 win over Tonga earlier in 2022. Tonga has put up scores of 14 and 6 against Aotearoa in two Tests since the 2017 RLWC, which is a product of coach Maguire's systems and players who love defence.
Dylan Brown made 27 tackles @ 100 percent against Tonga in his Test debut. Marata Niukore played centre in his Test debut and made 10 tackles without a miss. James Fisher-Harris made 26 tackles without a blemish against Tonga. Isaiah Papali'i made 37 tackles and Joseph Tapine made 36 tackles, both operating at 97 percent efficiency against Tonga. Nelson Asofa-Solomona (16 tackles) and Briton Nikora (8 tackles) came off the bench to finish with perfect tackling stats as well.
Coach Maguire comes from the Melbourne Storm/Craig Bellamy coaching tree and Jesse Bromwich has been a leader in that system for over a decade. In 12 consecutive NRL seasons, Bromwich has made 400+ tackles and missed less than 50 tackles. At least 50 players registered over 50 missed tackles this season, Bromwich has never hit that marker in his career.
During the group stage, keep tabs on how ruthless Aotearoa Kiwis are defensively. Slipping up defensively against weaker teams won't meet the standards set by coach Maguire and the players. They will be eager to shut out their next three opponents and Aotearoa can be ruthless with this, which will set them up for the increased intensity in the knockout stages.
Aotearoa Kiwis love to shift the footy around and their forward pack is well equipped to showcase these skills. Joseph Tapine (3rd), Joseph Manu (8th), Isaiah Papali'i (13th), Briton Nikora (14th) and Nelson Asofa-Solomona (15th) were all in the NRL's top-20 for offloads this season. Some of this is regular mahi, while Papali'i for example exploded with 30 offloads in his first season for Eels and he then had 37 offloads this season; Papali'i had more offloads this season than four seasons with NZ Warriors combined.
Against Tonga earlier this year, Aotearoa's starting forwards (excluding Brandon Smith) combined for 26 passes. Fisher-Harris had the most passes of this group (10 passes) and he is flexing his development as a skillful middle forward...
Both Bromwich brothers had five passes against Tonga and their skills are low key on display every week for Storm...
The combination of offloads and passing allows Aotearoa to move the footy to their edges, creating more mahi for opposition forwards and pouncing on space. While this is a fantastic attacking ploy with so many skillful forwards, Aotearoa stacks potent running from their spine on top of their ball movement for the final nugget.
Dylan Brown averaged 125m/game in the NRL this season and Jahrome Hughes averaged 94m/game. For context, Nathan Cleary averaged 95m/game and Jarome Luai averaged 72m/game for Panthers this season. Very few NRL halves are as active as Brown running the footy and while this is a notable aspect of Brown's mahi with Eels, combining this with former fullback Hughes forms a fabulous Aotearoa Kiwis halves combo.
What happens when Joseph Manu plays fullback?
Round 13 vs Raiders: 288m
Test vs Tonga: 401m
Manu had 105m running out of dummy half against Tonga and the Waiheke Ram Brandon Smith is so good at running the footy, he handles middle forward mahi with ease. Manu and Smith combined for 181m from 13 dummy half scoots against Tonga, which averages out to 13.92m/DHR. Manu and Smith are two of the best runners in the world, which when combined with two halves who also love to run the footy, gives Aotearoa a unique running threat.
Shifting the footy via passes and offloads creates space. That space will usually be pounced on by Smith, perhaps Manu and if those two aren't active out of dummy half, Brown and Hughes are sitting at first receiver ready to engage defenders in front of them. All of which causes the defence to move more and challenges their ability to cover holes, let alone trying to tackle any of these blokes.
All three of these Aotearoa Kiwis trends will be on display during the group stages and they will be tested as coach Maguire gives game time to his squad. These trends have been a feature of Aotearoa Kiwis footy and there is growth in these trends throughout coach Maguire's tenure. Now they will be showcased at a RLWC and how ruthless Aotearoa Kiwis are with these aspects of their footy will set up their knockout stages.
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