Kiwis’ hopes<\/a> of claiming their first World Cup since 2008.<\/p>\nBut coach Stacey Jones, whose side will face the Cook Islands in Christchurch next week before wrapping up their group stages matches against Fiji, said: “He couldn’t catch a ball or anything like that. He was in a bit of discomfort.”<\/p>\n
Ponga was replaced by Keano Kini as he trudged off late in the match after playing through pain for the final 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
“He’s obviously disappointed, but there’s a bit of upbeat about him too. He really wants to still be involved,” Jones said. <\/p>\n
![\"Australia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/australia-fans-celebrate-6K7VAIAEP5EL3GKV2NCECKYSFA.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Australia fans celebrate. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n
If his tournament is over, the Kiwis will have the option to ask for clearance to add an additional player to their squad.<\/p>\n
“He’s a tough guy and obviously has a lot of pride in the black and white jersey, and he doesn’t want to let his teammates down,” said Kiwis captain James Fisher-Harris.<\/p>\n
“I thought he did an outstanding job, he’s a freakish player, but he’s also one of those tough players. We’re feeling for him right now, but fingers crossed it’s not too bad.”<\/p>\n
Jones said Kini would likely replace Ponga if he is ruled out of next week’s pool match.<\/p>\n
The Kiwis’ narrow loss to Australia was one that will burn Jones for a while.<\/p>\n
Two of the Kangaroos’ five tries were the result of interceptions and another two were from kicks.<\/p>\n
The Kiwis dominated territory but lacked the polish to make Australia pay for their mistakes.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, we were on the losing side, but we will learn from it and we will get better, and we will make some adjustments,” Jones said.<\/p>\n
“You go in that changing room and everyone’s down, they’re hurting.<\/p>\n
“But you just bounce back and you get back into it. We know these boys, they work hard, they’re professional, we’ll be okay.”<\/p>\n
– Additional reporting by 1News<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including Harry and Meghan are back, and a skateboarding world record. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kiwis have confirmed fullback Kalyn Ponga broke his arm in last night’s Rugby League World Cup opener…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,807,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-632045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-australia","tag-kiwis","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632045","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=632045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}