Stephen Kearney believes there is more to come from his side after the Kiwis thrashed Papua New Guinea 48-6.
New Zealand boss says there is room for improvement
New Zealand coach Stephen Kearney believes there is more to come from his side after the Kiwis thrashed Papua New Guinea 48-6.
The Kiwis ran in nine-tries-to-one to brush aside the Kumuls at Gold Coast's Skilled Park.
It was the perfect response after their opening defeat by Australia and Kearney thinks there is still room for improvement as the Kiwis prepare to face England next.
The former Hull and Melbourne forward, whose side face England next, said: "Like last week, there are areas we need to get better in.
"I'll look at the tape and have a good look and see where we can improve and look to do that this week.
Defensive performance
"What really pleased me was the defensive performance of the lads. I watched Papua New Guinea play England last week and I thought they really troubled the English with the way they played.
"So it was going to take a good performance to keep them out. They only got over our tryline once, which again is an indication of us defending well.
"We gave them a few chances by turning the ball over and (there were) a couple of decisions."
Hamstring tightness forced Kiwi star Benji Marshall to watch the second half from the sidelines.
But the half-back said after the match that he expected to be fit for next Saturday's England encounter, which is being shown live on
Sky Sports 2 at 8.55am.
"He just felt a bit of tightness so we thought we'd better not risk it," added Kearney.
"He wanted to go back out, but given the circumstances of the match at half-time, we thought it was worthwhile that he had a break."
The New Zealand coach was happy with the player's improved performance from the Australia game.
"I thought he had a lot more touches, which we all know is important for Benji, because we know what he can do with the ball," he said.
Kumuls reaction
Papua New Guinea coach Adrian Lam was disappointed after seeing his side slump to their second straight defeat in the tournament.
The former Wigan scrum-half said: "I don't think we played well tonight. I think with a country like ours, everyone has got to turn up to play and have a good game and everything's got to line up perfectly.
"We had a decent start but we were our worst enemies, we kept putting ourselves in bad positions."
His side most now overhaul Australia if they are to have any hope of staying alive in the competition.
Lam added: "We've got to build the boys back up, there's a great bond between the boys and that can't be questioned, and I think we've just got to get back the mate-ship.
"The positive to take out of this game is that we're playing again next week.
"I just want our boys to compete, when you set goals against teams like (Australia), you've got to watch out where you set them."
