What a try by the kiwis. Awesome game this. Huge hits. No 16 for NZ is unstoppable! Shaun Johnson for player of the tournament.

Shaun Johnson! SHAUN JOHNSON! ............SHAUN ............JOHNSON ............!

Johnson and Forlan are excellent and Issac but so has been Jennings for OZ and Inglis.
All five are stand out payers and any of 5 could stack a claim for player of the tournament.

Cherry Evans and Cronk are no match.

Haha. He's certainly showing up Cherry Evans. Aussies are missing Thurston(who wouldn't tho)
In Foran and Johnson the kiwis must have the most devasting halves pairing in international league. Both still only about 24/25.

They are, but top international RL isn't that deep.
...so its not that hard to have the best backs.

Thurston and Hayne would have been a difference kettle of fishes though.

Ha ha ha....
Trust Cronk and Cherry Evans come up with that and answer our critic.

And I earlier called the NZ no 16 unstoppable....he's just been stopped!

I'll tell you something, it's deeper than international RU in this country. The threequarters of England, NZ and Aus would destroy any of the home nations.
Good game so far, Aussies looked rattled at halftime, but that try has changed everything for the moment.

Cherry Evans doesn't look like a rugby player. He's all limbs and neck! A giraffe!

Johnson, that was pure genius.

The dummy was outrageous. Then he backed himself to beat Inglis with pace. This is a brilliant game. NZ might just regret missing the conversion though.

Always great seeing inglis made to look human.

We could do with The Beast on our left flank.

I reckon that's the game for NZ.
One other point. Enjoying the commentary, far better than Eddie and Stevo and their continuous sensationalism and criticism of the ref.

Sam Thaiday looks like my mates mum.

That was close! Sensational game.

I love this sport!

Amazing game. That's the benchmark. Great tournament and hopefully we picked up some new RL fans along the way. Great way to start a Saturday

well done Kiwis.

me too!

Did Johnson really get a piece of paper for Player of the Tournament?! Bet he's thinking "yeah, err, thanks Harvey Norman!"

Well is a new concept and there haven't been any past master to give the mom a name too.

I hope MacNamara is metaphorically kicking the cat.

We've never had a better chance to win a tournament involving Australia, and we blew it two weeks ago.

Yes, the Aussies took NZ to the last minute, BUT, as I said on the game thread a fortnight ago, that's the weakest Aussie side in living memory, and we blew it.

We're not that far from NZ, as the scores in our last 2 Tests against them shows. That tournament was there for the taking........

P.S. Johnson. Move Heaven and Earth to sign this lad. He GLIDES across the pitch. Superb.

I'm sure his performances haven't gone unoticed by the All Black selectors either with a certain Dan Carter in the twilight of his career.

Thank you Yed and we'll done
Good concept
enjoyed the challenge
I decided to take this one a little more serious too