Kiwis sweep aside PNG

New Zealand ran in nine tries on their way to a 48-6 victory over Papua New Guinea on the Gold Coast.

The Kiwis looked ominously comfortable against a side which threatened to cause an upset against England in their opener last week.

The key to their success was to starve the Kumuls of ball - something England so signally failed to do in a shocking first-half display.

On this evidence England will have to improve significantly on their 32-22 win in Townsville if they are to beat the Kiwis next weekend.

The closest the Kumuls got to threatening a repeat of their Townsville heroics was early in the second half when David Moore charged over for the try-of-the-match, cutting the deficit to 22-6.

The re-start went out on the full giving PNG the sniff of back-to-back tries, but they failed to find touch with the subsequent penalty on half-way and their chance was gone.

Free-flowing

New Zealand enjoyed the majority of early possession and set up victory in a free-flowing first half, as Simon Mannering crossed twice and Sam Perrett once, after Jerome Ropati ran in the opener.

After a physical start to the match, it was not long before the Kiwis scored as a string of passes ended in Benji Marshall setting up Ropati in the ninth minute.

Mannering then crossed effortlessly for a double and Krisnan Inu, after earlier missing his first shot of the night, had no trouble converting both of Mannering's tries.

PNG were not willing to go down easily, though, and were almost boosted on the half-hour mark when a defensive error from Vatuvei nearly handed them their first score.

George Kepa then looked to have the Kumuls on the board when he was found in space by a good pass from Stanley Gene, but the Kiwi defence held out.

Resistance

After a brief period of resistance from PNG, New Zealand then grabbed back the momentum when Perrett was found in space with a great long pass from a side-stepping Marshall in the 34th minute.

Moore's 48th-minute try briefly raised hopes of a miraculous recovery, but those were quickly dashed as the recalled Isaac Luke made the most of some poor defending and raced 35 metres to the line.

Three minutes later the Kiwis were over again, as substitute David Fa'alogo crashed over.

The match started to fizzle out, although the Kiwis continued to look dangerous and, after Manu Vatuvei had a try disallowed due to a forward pass, Adam Blair touched down in the 68th minute.

Perrett then crossed for his second of the match after a fumble from the Kumuls cost them possession.

New Zealand were not quite finished though, as newly-signed Leeds lock Greg Eastwood added a final try with a barnstorming run in the 76th minute.

The result means the Kumuls' World Cup campaign is as good as over - they now need to beat tournament favourites Australia next weekend to have a hope of reaching the semi-finals.

For their part, the Kiwis will be eyeing up back-to-back clashes with England, although victory may have come at some cost, with star back Benji Marshall forced to watch the second half from the sidelines with a tight hamstring.