\u201cThat\u2019s where we wanted to get it right, get our start right to set up for the rest of the game,\u201d said Jones. \u201cThe boys in the middle did a really good job for the first 25, 30 minutes to lay the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n
The starting pack tore into their opposites, while the Kiwis\u2019 defence was unforgiving and relentless, before the attack clicked in the 22 minutes ahead of halftime with four impressive tries. The performance was even more impressive given the injury upheavals. They lost Jeremy Marshall-King (thumb) and Ronalo Mulitalo (knee) after the Samoa match, then Sebastian Kris (calf) was ruled out on Friday. <\/p>\n
That meant a reshuffle, which saw electric fullback Keano Kini come into the picture. The Gold Coast custodian made the most of his opportunity, busy around the park and a constant threat on attack. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was class,\u201d said Jones. \u201cHe did that for us last year, too. He gets plenty of reps at training too so it wasn\u2019t like it was foreign to him, just because of the limited numbers we have within our squad.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there were numerous standouts, especially in the forwards, while five-eighth Dylan Brown continued his strong form in this series. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a real threat, you know, and off the ball stuff he does,\u201d said Jones. \u201cHe loves to play footy but he turns up at the right place.\u201d<\/p>\n
The performance sets the Kiwis up for a huge match with Samoa, where both teams could find a new peak, though the New Zealand team will be without four front-line players. Both Jones and captain James Fisher-Harris lauded the special occasion that was Sunday, with the predominantly Tongan crowd of 38,114 in full voice throughout.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want big crowds, to be honest, in an international game,\u201d said Fisher-Hariris. \u201cIt\u2019s getting better and better and we love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones even suggested that the past three weeks \u2013 with booming attendances – could be a turning point for the international side of the sport. <\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely [it could be],\u201d said Jones. \u201c[With] the passion out there from the fans. We talk about the Tongan fans, but there was plenty of New Zealand fans out there too. So it was just a great atmosphere and people getting behind the international game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones and Fisher-Harris repeated calls for more space for international football. <\/p>\n
\u201cA mid-year test would be perfect to split the year up because it\u2019s a long NRL season as it is,\u201d said Fisher-Harris. <\/p>\n
Michael Burgess<\/a> has been a Sports Journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America\u2019s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThat\u2019s where we wanted to get it right, get our start right to set up for the rest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[21693,9092,43863,5162,1320,41309,5904,54447,2176,807,111,139,2551,69,52591,30394,213,15412,53477,10809,1734,8229,61,53476,3608,14905,6027],"class_list":["post-114462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-achieved","tag-against","tag-certainly","tag-chasing","tag-coach","tag-dominant","tag-final","tag-hails","tag-jones","tag-kiwis","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-night","tag-nz","tag-redemption","tag-seal","tag-sports","tag-spot","tag-stacey","tag-sunday","tag-sydney","tag-they","tag-to","tag-tonga","tag-were","tag-whether","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}