Australia wins 26-12 against Kiwis in inaugural match of Gillette Four Nations
Australia clinched a 26-12 victory over New Zealand in the inaugural match of the Gillette Four Nations which was staged on Friday, October 28, at Halliwell Stadium.
Kangaroos were in the lead from the beginning of the match by 16-0 at the half-time. The results reminded supporters of their very similar 42-6 win against the same opponents almost two weeks ago.
Kiwis trailed behind Kangaroos by a huge margin with all sixteen points from Australian side unanswered by them, however, they sprung back to life during the second half of the clash. They successfully closed in the gap with their opponents to four points.
The two tries from the Kiwi side came in from Jason Nightingale and Kalifa Faifai'loa and were converted by Benji Marshall.
However, during the second half of the game, Kiwis managed to take the lead by 12-10. However the lead did not last for too long, as it took only two minutes for Australia to crumble the deadlock with Matt Scott charging across the field.
Kiwis on various moments posed a threat to the Australian side and the second half of the game was a tough fight for either side, where Kiwis seemed to be in form to snatch back their lead which appeared slipping away from the Australian side at one point
in time.
However, despite the sporadic spells of Kiwi attack, the Australian side continued to pose pressure on New Zealand. Nightingale played a major role in putting up a fight against the opponents as the player successfully found a hole through the strong wall
of defence to pass the ball to Kevin Locke, which could bear fruitful results for the trailing side.
Kieran Foran, took charge and booted the ball into a very high kick, this was taken over by Nigtingale to score his side’s first try.
However, Marshall’s conversion brought the the score break to16-6, this gap was fought back until both sides were only 4 points apart. This was followed by the first Test try by Kaifa Faifai Loa.
This had set Kangaroos winger, Akuila Uate, into action but Kiwis did not allow him to score the next try.
It would not be wrong to say that the Kiwis strong defence added to the delay in Australia’s win but comparing the two sides’ on-field performance, the better of the two, walked out writing their name all over the field.
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