Brown had numerous try assists and was the most influential playmaker across all three matches, creating constant uncertainty in the defensive line. <\/p>\n
Sunday was his best performance yet. The Kiwis were under immense pressure for long periods \u2013 in difficult conditions \u2013 but Brown helped to spark the revival at 14-6 down, setting up Isaiah Papali\u2019i to score, before a mazy run and brilliant one-handed pass for Casey McLean\u2019s try. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a special player\u201d, summarised Kiwis coach Jones after the final. <\/p>\n
Keano Kini kills it<\/p>\n
The Titans fullback is in the form of his life. A comparative featherweight at just 1.77m and 84kg, his bravery is second to none with a fearless approach. He was secure under the high ball and added another dimension with his sparky runs, offloads and unmatched acceleration, with a game high 219m from 33 carries. From being outside the squad for the first match, the 21-year-old is surely in the No 1 jersey for the World Cup<\/a>, though Kalyn Ponga could yet be in the mix, depending on what happens with the eligibility rules around State of Origin. <\/p>\n Joseph Tapine was another unsung hero for the Kiwis. While others might get the headlines, Tapine has developed into probably the most effective all-round middle forward in the sport, with his powerful carries, combative nature, offloading ability and underrated pace. On Sunday his offloading \u2013 often in heavy traffic, with two or three defenders on him \u2013 played havoc with Samoa\u2019s defensive patterns. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen the opposition can offload like that, almost at will… it makes it very hard,\u201d conceded Samoa coach Ben Gardiner.<\/p>\n Foran gets his fairy tale <\/p>\n No one in the sport will begrudge Kieran Foran his Cinderella ending on Sunday, which had looked so unlikely for so long, with his plethora of injuries and off-field issues over the years. Foran will be remembered as one of the Kiwis\u2019 greatest servants, across an unprecedented international career, which began in 2009. His commitment to the cause has been remarkable, right from when he opted for New Zealand as a teenager despite being tipped as a future State of Origin contender, as a young star in a Manly side that would reach two grand finals in the space of three seasons between 2011 and 2013. <\/p>\n Even as he has lost some zip in recent years, he has stayed relevant with his competitive spirit, toughness, leadership and defensive abilities. He already enjoyed what felt like a great farewell in the 2023 Pacific Championships \u2013 putting himself on the line as a hooker in that memorable series – but this year has been the icing on the cake <\/a>and his pre-game tears during the national anthem on Sunday summed up just what it meant. <\/p>\n \u201cHe is a special person,\u201d said Jones. \u201cHe means so much to everyone in this group. He bleeds black and takes a lot of pressure off Fish (Fisher-Harris) as far as leadership.\u201d <\/p>\n Redemption for Stacey Jones <\/p>\n Jones came into the series under the microscope, after last year\u2019s third place finish in a disappointing campaign. It was a tough initiation \u2013 with a lot of key players unavailable \u2013 but Jones has proved his mettle in 2025. His selections were hard to fault, while he got the best out of a spine deprived of Jahrome Hughes and Jeremy Marshall-King. Most importantly, he engendered a great spirit and resilience throughout the group, best shown with their first win over Samoa<\/a>, as they withstood a massive onslaught through much of the second half before Brown\u2019s late try. <\/p>\n \u201cWe debuted a lot of players [last year],\u201d said Jones. \u201cA lot were back this year and the team just grew and grew. We went under the radar a little bit which was good.\u201d <\/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":"Dylan Brown delivers Almost no one was talking about the Kiwis five-eighth before the tournament, after a middling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[836,2880,1738,5759,88858,26636,25819,88857,35964,1342,71,1019,4277,807,14731,13840,663,15399,13085,23739,5494,117,111,43,139,69,13572,423,88859,6327,5902,9087,25809,102,2963],"class_list":["post-128214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-836","tag-burgess","tag-campaign","tag-championships","tag-compelling","tag-crowds","tag-deep","tag-factors","tag-feels","tag-five","tag-from","tag-international","tag-key","tag-kiwis","tag-league","tag-like","tag-looks","tag-massive","tag-matches","tag-memorable","tag-michael","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pacific","tag-point","tag-rivalries","tag-rugby","tag-samoa","tag-triumph","tag-turning","tag-with","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128214","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=128214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Kieran Foran in his last test on New Zealand soil. Photo \/ Photosport.<\/p>\n