New Zealand have booked a date with Australia in the Rugby League World Cup semi-finals — but coach Michael Maguire has conceded his side “need to be better” if they want to beat the high-flying Kangaroos.
New Zealand overcame a first-half scare to defeat Fiji 24-18 and keep their World Cup campaign alive.
Scores were locked up with 10 minutes to go before Jordan Rapana broke the deadlock with a penalty goal and then sealed the result with a try in the 78th minute.
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It was sweet revenge after Fiji pulled off a stunning upset in the 2017 World Cup, knocking New Zealand out in a two-point quarter-final win.
A somewhat relieved Maguire told reporters after the game that he and the squad always had one eye on this clash and although the Kiwis didn’t play their best, they’ll take a lot out of being challenged.
“It was a close game — that’s what it was,” he said.
“Full credit to Fiji, they were able to put the pressure on us and I think we were able to create a fair bit of pressure on ourselves at times.
“I’m looking forward to this week, the eye has always been on getting through and getting to the semis. We’re here now and that’s the biggest thing we need to concentrate on.
“There was (some anxious moments), they aged me a bit.
“But as I said to the players, we’ve got through now and we’ll get a fair bit out of that.
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“It wasn’t probably the style of what we’d like to have played but I was pleased that they stuck to the plan and that’s what got them through.
“I’ve said many times throughout the last couple of weeks that how tight they are, that’s what’s really brought them through. They had to dig in, Fiji came at us and put the pressure on.
“We probably pushed a few passes that we wouldn’t normally push and they put a bit of pressure on.”
New Zealand will take on Australia in a must-watch semi-final on Saturday November 12 at 6:45am (AEDT).
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When asked how much better the Kiwis need to be to beat the Kangaroos, Maguire said: “I’ll tell you next week.
“We need to be better in areas of our game — you can obviously see that,” he added.
“I think they jumped us a little bit at the start and we put a little bit of pressure on ourselves and you can’t do that to the teams we’re playing.
“We’ll improve.
“One thing about the group is that they’re pretty strong on how they want to go about things. We had a good discussion then about what we did tonight, we’ll take that into next week.
“There’s areas of our game — we can’t give away cheap, loose ball or errors or penalties. I thought at the start of the game we gave away a couple of penalties and the pressure came on and we didn’t handle that as well as we have in the past.
“They’re good lessons for us leading into next week.”
Joey Manu was named man of the match after scoring a try, getting 11 tackle busts and notching up 304 running metres at fullback. But he’ll get his biggest test yet on the international stage when he goes up against Roosters teammate James Tedesco — Australia’s captain and fullback.
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Manu was asked if Tedesco was the best player in the world right now and said: “Yeah. I think he’s pretty good and he has been for a while.”
Manu’s desires to one day play fullback in the NRL have been no secret and he got the opportunity a few times to do so this year while Tedesco was out with State of Origin duties.
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He’s “excited” to go up against his “good mate” — and for the team to test themselves against the best.
“James is obviously a great player,” Manu said.
“I’ve played with him for a few years now and he’s got that fullback position at the Roosters and whenever I slide in there he tends to help me out a bit.
“He’s someone I love to learn from but it’ll be a different, he’ll be on the opposite side next week.
“He’s a good mate but I want to do what’s best for our team. I’ll be competing against him on Friday night.
“I’m excited… These are the games you look forward to as a player — playing against some of the best. I’m excited to play some of them but I’m excited to see what we can do as a team.
“We’re more focused on ourselves, we’ll be ready but there’s a few things that we want to work on.
“Two good teams going at it, a lot of good players so we want to test ourselves against the best.”
New Zealand will get a big boost ahead of the clash with Maguire confirming that Moses Leota (hamstring) and Marata Niukore (pectoral) will return, while veteran prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is also hoping to be back from a suspension and calf injury.
