New Zealand have come over the top of Samoa to win back the Pacific Cup, proving they shouldn’t be the forgotten team of rugby league with a 36-14 victory.<\/p>\n
Down 14-6 at halftime at CommBank 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 have almost slipped out of the conversation regarding World Cup contenders next year.<\/p>\n
But Sunday was a clear reminder that Stacey Jones’ men should not be overlooked, especially with New Zealand having also beaten Australia 30-0 in the final two years ago.<\/p>\n
New Zealand have come over the top of Samoa to win back the Pacific Cup, proving they shouldn’t be the forgotten team of rugby league with a 36-14 victory.\u00a0Darrian Traynor\/Getty Images<\/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
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
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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand have come over the top of Samoa to win back the Pacific Cup, proving they shouldn’t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-272968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272968","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=272968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}