{"id":272892,"date":"2025-11-09T08:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T08:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/272892\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T08:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T08:53:11","slug":"new-zealand-defeats-samoa-36-14-to-claim-pacific-cup-and-farewell-kieran-foran-in-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/272892\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand defeats Samoa 36-14 to claim Pacific Cup and farewell Kieran Foran in style"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand has come over the top of Samoa to win back the Pacific Cup, proving they should not be the forgotten team of rugby league with a 36-14 victory.<\/p>\n

Down 14-6 at half-time at Western Sydney Stadium on Sunday, the Kiwis ran in five unanswered second-half tries to deny Samoa a maiden international trophy.<\/p>\n

Erin Clark was brilliant and Naufahu Whyte all-powerful up front for New Zealand, allowing Kieran Foran to go out a winner after 16 years in the black and white.<\/p>\n

Dylan Brown also set up three tries, taking man-of-the-match honours and again showing what he can bring Newcastle when he joins the Knights next year on the NRL’s richest ever contract.<\/p>\n

It has not been lost on Kiwi players through this tournament that they have almost become the forgotten country in international rugby league.<\/p>\n

With all the focus on the rise of Samoa and Tonga in recent years, New Zealand has almost slipped out of the conversation regarding World Cup contenders next year.<\/p>\n

But Sunday was a clear reminder that Stacey Jones’s men should not be overlooked, especially with New Zealand having also beaten Australia 30-0 in the final two years ago.<\/p>\n

After outlasting Samoa and thrashing Tonga to make this year’s final, the Kiwis had to do it the hard way in the decider.<\/p>\n

Both teams’ packs battered each other early on, with Payne Haas and Francis Molo going at the Kiwis in an engrossing first half.<\/p>\n

Samoa creates rugby league magic<\/a><\/p>\n

The passion of the Pacific shines through in Samoa’s rugby league team, and the pride the people have is evident on the island.<\/p>\n

It was also Samoa who took their chances early, with Jarome Luai sending Brian To’o over for one try and Simi Sasagi claiming a 70-metre intercept for another.<\/p>\n

But the signs were there for New Zealand, with Keano Kini dangerous at fullback and Whyte trampling defenders at will at some stages.<\/p>\n

And while Whyte scored the Kiwis’ only first-half try when Clark went to the line and drew in a defender, the floodgates opened after the break.<\/p>\n

Foran and Dylan Brown combined to send over Isaiah Papali’i and reduce the margin to 14-12, before a penalty goal brought New Zealand level.<\/p>\n

Clark capped a superb year when he barged through three defenders to make it 20-14, before a James Fisher-Harris charge created the space for Brown to send Casey McLean over.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Casey McLean celebrates with teammates after scoring a try. (Getty Images: Darrian Traynor)<\/p>\n

And by the time Papali’i and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad crossed in the final five minutes, the Kiwis were rocking and Foran was going out a winner.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to believe. The boys dug so deep, I knew they would,” Foran said.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to come in here and try and finish on a high. It’s been a tough year [at Gold Coast].<\/p>\n

“But to come here and do it with this bunch of boys, it’s just the cherry on top.”<\/p>\n

Samoa were gutsy despite having next to no ball after the break and will remain a threat after next year’s World Cup, having reached the final in 2022.<\/p>\n

But New Zealand have again proven they should not be discounted, with Jahrome Hughes to return for next year’s tournament behind one of the world’s best packs.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand has come over the top of Samoa to win back the Pacific Cup, proving they should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,2649,761,762,1736,158,40044,159,5993,588,85,143685],"class_list":["post-272892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-final","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-zealand","tag-nrl","tag-pacific-cup","tag-rugby-league","tag-samoa","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-western-sydney-stadium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}