The Kiwis had a short turnaround, after a physical battle against the Kangaroos in Christchurch and are missing a number of top liners. Tonga was almost at full strength and fresh after a week off.
But even with these caveats, the first half will raise questions about the Kiwis’ focus and environment, because something was clearly wrong. Jones denied there were any issues that led to it.
“We were clear about how we went, but we will obviously look back and see if we could have done anything differently,” Jones said. “That is a conversation with the management, the coaches and trainers in the area. If we could have done something differently, we will definitely review it… the players will review their performance. I felt like we prepared really well for the week, thanks to some good signs against Australia.”
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New Zealand had no answers about their loss to Tonga. Photo / Photo sports
Captain James Fisher-Harris made no apologies and admitted the Kiwis had not turned up.
“We knew they were going to come out like that, but we just didn’t step up. Those are just the facts. They came out shooting and kind of blew us away,” Fisher-Harris said. “We were connected at times, but we made it very difficult for ourselves with the ball, our settings, our mistakes… they were in our faces.”
Tonga also benefited from some generous interpretations from the referees in the first half, as ruck inferences and a suspected shoulder charge went unpunished, but they thoroughly deserved their ascendancy.
The bright spot for the Kiwis was their attack in the second half – with excellent tries from Keano Kini, Phoenix Crossland and Joseph Tapine as the attack started to click, with Tapine’s try being one of the big four-pointers from a prop in the Kiwis. history.
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But that wasn’t enough as the Kiwis got a little loose again at 24-24 after looking like they had all the momentum. So it came down to the wire and the Kiwis couldn’t respond after Katoa’s great click. Johnson was set but Kodi Nikorima threw an errant pass from dummy half before Isaako skewed his effort wide from the resulting strike.
A Tongan defender (Eli Katoa) was far from square on the marker – before his desperate attempt to reach Johnson – but a challenge on the Kiwis captain was unsuccessful, causing a controversial end to the match.
“I thought he made the wrong call,” Johnson explained. “I tried to challenge that; it was not square at the marker. And then they put it on the big screen and don’t even go back to the markers or to the offside. They haven’t gone back to look at it.”
Although a penalty would have been tough for Tonga, it was a clear foul and difficult to understand how the bunker overlooked it.
But that summed up the evening for the Kiwis, who will have to regroup somehow before facing Papua New Guinea or Fiji in a promotion-relegation match in Sydney next Sunday, to next to remain in the top level of the Pacific Championships for years.
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. He has also reported on the Warriors and NRL for more than a decade.
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