Kiwis show class as they rampage England
Rampaging Kiwi forward George Taunga wrecked England's hopes of a Student Rugby League World Cup victory in Brisbane.

Playing on Wednesday at the Arana Hills ground in the city coach Paul Fletcher saw his men overpowered as the champs marched through to wrap up a final date with Southern hemisphere rivals Australia.

Obviously disappointed Fletcher said he was still very proud of his side and the effort the whole of his squad had put in.

‘But it has been a disappointing end to a very good competition. We only completed 50 per cent of our sets in the first half and gave away five penalties in the first seven minutes and you cannot win matches on that sort of thing.

‘Having said that the Kiwis were a good side. Taking positives from the series I would say I now know we are in the top four teams in the world at this level. And with a little more luck I think we could have finished higher.’

He added: ‘We had three sets after half-time when we could and should have scored and we missed a chance just before the break. Either of those chances would have pulled us back in to the picture.

‘But no matter how you look at it we came here to win and we have not done that,’ he added.

As far as the match went England hooker David Hulme was in the thick of things right from the start making a couple of good probing runs, then falling foul of Aussie referee Chris Sutton.

But already danger was threatening in the shape of some powerhouse runs from the Kiwis.

It took New Zealand just 12 minutes to get on the scoreboard. A bomb hoisted in to the Brisbane sky took a wicked bounce leaving fullback Alex Clemie wrong-footed and Kiwi full-back Jimmy O’Brien touched down and converted his own try.

But England pulled back to within two points within a couple of minutes when prop Alex Benson crossed the Kiwi line, but Martin Ainscough’s conversion attempt was off the target.

O’Brien then combined with full-back Paul Aitkens to send in centre Mike Nathan for an unconverted try on 18 minutes.

Alan Robinson got close for England and then a well-worked miss move saw England full-back Alex Clemie steam on to the ball at speed but he could not hang on to the final pass.

On the half hour that man O’Brien was involved again, taking a pass from Nathan to send in Scott Hurrell. O’Brien was again wide of the mark with the conversion attempt.

As half time approached Jamie McDonald looked to be heading for a touchdown only to be denied by a superb tackle from a determined Alex Clemie to leave the score at the break 4-14.

Just after the restart England put pressure on the Kiwis, but were let off the hook when Benson made a rare fumble and knocked on. And that seemed to be the signal for Taunga to stage his one-way demolition act.

The Kiwis thought they had found a weakness in the England right side defence and hammered it on every possible occasion.

Taunga claimed his first try on 50 minutes when he came up in support of a break and cut back inside to score. Six minutes later he stormed in again and this time O’Brien had found his kicking boots to convert both and add a 58th minute penalty.

England to their credit never gave up trying and were proving equal to the opposition in terms of fitness.

And when they moved the ball across the field just after the hour Andy Walker was on hand to double England’s score.

However Taunga brought any hopes of a revival to an abrupt end with his hat-trick try on 64 minutes, again converted by O’Brien.

England’s man of the match Kevin Till buzzed around trying to get his men on the move and also worked his socks off defensively, while for the Kiwis it was hooker O’Brien who stepped up to receive his Kiwi man of the match shirt from RL legend Mal Meninga.

England:
Tries: Benson(14), Walker (61).
New Zealand: Tries: O’Brien (12), Nathan (20), Hurrell (30), Taunga (50, 56, 64).
Goals: O’Brien 5.
HT 4-14

Man of the Match:
England : Kevin Till. Never stopped working and urging his fellow players on to battle harder.
New Zealand : Jimmy O’Brien. The Kiwi hooker seemed to have a hand in everything his side did.

Gamebreaker: George Taunga’s first try which took the score to 18-4 in the Kiwis’ favour. At that point it seemed as if the gap was going to prove too big for England to close.

England: 5 Alex Clemie; 7 Simon Edwards, 11 Matt Mulholland, 6 Ben Cramant, 3 Tom Tsang; 18 Kevin Till, 21 Martin Ainscough; 16 Al Robinson, 9 Richard Hulme, 2 Alex Benson, 17 Mark Spurr, 8 Scott Houston, 4 Jon Chamberlain. Subs (all used): 12 Jon Nicholls, 20 Andy Walker, 13 Dave Norcross, 1 Andrew Ali.

New Zealand: 1 Paul Aitkins; 5 Tim Carhill, 15 Tala Paleaasina, 4 Mike Natthan, 26 Scott Hurrell; 6 Mike Craig, 7 Jamie McDonald; 21 Adam Donaldson, 9 Jimmy O’Brien, 10 Chris Tupou, 11 James Koloamatangi, 16 George Taunga, 12 Andrew Auimatagi. Subs (all used): 14 Daniel McGregor, 13 Daniel Bell, 8 Aina Massina, 17 Henry Heke.

Referee: Chris Sutton (New South Wales)

Article by Chris Leak
14 Jul 2005