New Zealand delivered a statement victory as they thrashed Fiji 78-0 to book their place in the Rugby League World Cup semi-finals. <\/p>\n
The Kiwis established a 24-0 lead with four converted tries in the opening 13 minutes as Fiji – who pushed reigning champions Australia close a week ago – had no response on Australia’s Gold Coast.<\/p>\n
Fiji conceded eight tries in the first half and five in a fiery second period, during which half-back Brandon Wakeham was sent off along with New Zealand winger Ronaldo Mulitalo.<\/p>\n
Centre Casey McLean claimed four tries, Keano Kini scored two and Jahrome Hughes, Dane Gagai, James Fisher-Harris, Mulitalo, Xavier Willison, Briton Nikora and Erin Clark also crossed for Stacey Jones’ team.<\/p>\n
“Pretty special and pleased about how we went about our business,” said New Zealand captain Fisher-Harris.<\/p>\n
“Fiji are a good team but I thought we played really well. It was a battle of the forwards.”<\/p>\n
Fiji’s woes were not confined to the scoreline, with captain Apisai Koroisau suffering a suspected broken jaw as he clashed heads with Joseph Tapine in the eighth minute.<\/p>\n
Semi Valemei, who impressed with a hat-trick of tries against the Kangaroos, also left the field with a head injury during the first half. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, New Zealand will now face an anxious wait to discover if Mulitalo faces a tournament-ending ban for a high shot on Ronald Philitoga, which prompted a fracas involving Wakeham.<\/p>\n
However, in his post-match news conference Kiwis head coach Jones confirmed that star full-back Kalyn Ponga, who broke his arm in the tournament opener against Australia on 15 October, has trained this week and could be involved in their last-four match against either Samoa, Tonga or England.<\/p>\n
Samoa and Tonga meet on Sunday and both look set to advance from Pool B & C. <\/p>\n
England’s slim hopes rest on the unlikely scenario of Tonga defeating Samoa by more than 46 points. <\/p>\n
The losers of the contest between the Pacific Island rivals will take on Australia next. <\/p>\n
Kevin Walters’ side maintained their 100% record in their final group match with a comfortable 66-6 success over the Cook Islands in Townsville.<\/p>\n
Jack Bostock and Tom Trbojevic both scored three tries each in a game the Cook Islands briefly led 6-4 when Rua Ngatikaura went over and Valentine Holmes added the extras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand delivered a statement victory as they thrashed Fiji 78-0 to book their place in the Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-646951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646951","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=646951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}