Mal Meninga was reluctant to make changes to his side for their grudge match against the Kiwis despite admitting his Kangaroos were rusty in their 18-0 win over Tonga.
Australia fielded six debutants in their first match since getting thrashed 30-0 by the Kiwis in last year’s Pacific Championships final and it showed in a clunky display against Tonga.
However, given Australia has just one game against New Zealand before hopefully qualifying for the 2024 final, Meninga called for stability.
Meninga was asked if he would rest hooker Harry Grant, which brought a confused response.
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“Why?” Meninga laughed.
“Harry’s the VC (vice-captain) and Yeo is the captain, so we’ve got some tough decisions to make.”
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Despite coming off late in the game, there were no concerns for Grant’s fitness according to Meninga.
“No, he’s fine,” Meninga said.
“He’s just been huffing and puffing, and you’ve got to remember again, it’s only been 10 days since the grand final, so it’s tough on the players, honestly.
“In those humid conditions the ball was pretty slippery as well, so there’s no excuses, but to get a bit of a blowout in the game, there’s no doubt we’ll come back a better footy team next time around, definitely.”
However Meninga believes it might be better to keep a similar team to build combinations.
“We’ll make some decisions over the next few days, but when we talk about the team and it’s such a new team, and being together for the very first time, it would probably give us some serious consideration around playing again and have better continuity in our footy team,” Meninga said.
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However, Meninga conceded the players that missed out against Tonga deserve an opportunity.
“That’s a possibility, but we’ll see how everyone pulls up out of this game because I know that the guys who missed out have been training really well and been terrific around the camp,” Meninga said.
“But we’ll make those tough decisions at a later date.”
Despite leading just 6-0 at half-time and 14-0 until the final minute, Meninga was happy with his side’s performance particularly in defence.
“I’m very happy, to be honest with you,” Meninga said.
“Attitude and intent, defensively outstanding, I felt against that big Tongan side who came ready to play.
Havili leads fiery Tongan Sipi Tau | 02:12
“I’m not quite sure how many tries they stopped, but they were desperate.
“We could play a bit better with a footy, but we’ve got a few debutants there, and particularly in the spine, so really happy with the performance, and really encouraging as far as improving over hopefully the next two games.”
Meninga defended his players and their clunky attack, most notably Mitchell Moses given his long injury lay-off.
“Yeah, that’s to be expected, I mean, Mitch hasn’t played for quite a while,” Meninga said. “Tommy Trbojevic as well, so a lot of the players, except for the Grand Final teams, haven’t played for at least three weeks.
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“So I’m really happy considering the short preparation period too. We only really had two real serious sessions and the captain’s run, so really pleased with our defensive effort in holding them to zero and the attitude’s great.”
Meninga was full of praise for centres Trbojevic and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow after they inspired the team to victory.
“Tommy hasn’t played for a while either, so he was really excited about getting picked in the Kangaroos again,” Meninga said.
“He hasn’t been there for a while, and I thought defensively he was really good too.
“I thought everyone’s defence was excellent, but I thought our edges were pretty special, and I think Hamiso got the man of the match, more so probably for his defence than the attack side of things, so really happy with everyone.”
Meninga was also full of praise for his rookie wingers Zac Lomax and Xavier Coates.
“They both had tremendous years,” Meninga said.
“And Tommy as well, and Hamiso, so they bring what they bring, and we don’t ask anything different of them, and they performed really, really well tonight.”
Woolf on the team’s importance to Tonga | 05:32
New Kangaroos skipper Isaah Yeo also paid tribute to the Kangaroos outside backs.
“I felt like our strength is live football and set for set,” Yeo said.
“And that probably showed a little bit at the back end of that second half, it felt like. And yeah, we obviously asked a lot of our outside backs who did a wonderful job as well.
“We had to tackle a lot in the middle, and they were really repaying that with their carries coming out of the backfield.
“They showed that at club land, that’s obviously their strength, but then to do it on the big stage with the Australian jersey on that’s another level as well. I thought our outstanding for us.”
Australia will now look to avenge their 30-0 last start loss to New Zealand, but Meninga warned not to let emotion get the better of them.
“We’ll try not to get too carried away,” Meninga said.
“I mean, emotion is a good thing, but it’s got to be controlled. We’ve addressed it, and we’ve got a good result for us tonight.
“Obviously, when you talk about defence, it’s around an attitude and decisions you make, so really happy with that, and I think we’ll just move on, try to play better footy.”
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