WELLINGTON: Rookie South Sydney halfback Eddie Paea steered the Junior Kiwis to a thrilling 24-22 win over the Junior Kangaroos in the curtain-raiser to yesterday’s trans-Tasman Test in Wellington.
Paea slotted a simple penalty goal eight minutes from time to secure the win before the home side was forced to come up with some desperate goalline defence to deny the Australians in the closing stages.
The Kangaroos looked like running away with the contest with two tries in the opening eight minutes.
Young Melbourne centre Will Chambers got the first before Wests Tigers star Chris Lawrence crashed through two defenders for a 12-0 lead.
The Kiwis hit back with two tries in four minutes in either corner, Liam Foran and Paea both landing sideline conversions to lock up the contest.
The Australians struggled to handle their much bigger opposition, their dominance rewarded when young Gold Coast winger Kingi Akaloa scored his second of the afternoon to give New Zealand their first lead of the game.
Paea scored a brilliant individual try as he stepped through three defenders to have his side in a commanding position at the break before Bulldogs flyer Heka Nanai dragged the visitors back into the contest when he scored out wide just two minutes after the restart.
Lawrence was denied a second when held up over the line, but there was no stopping interchange backrower Tony Williams who beat three players to score in almost the same spot his skipper had been stopped only five minutes earlier.
Young Warriors backrower Sonny Fai was proving a handful out wide with several handy offloads for the Kiwis, one of which should have resulted in a try only for Alex Glenn to go himself instead of using one of three players he had in support.
It seemed only a matter of time before the Kiwis would go over, but they eventually sealed the win with a penalty goal when Kangaroos prop Aiden Tolman was ruled to have stripped the ball in front of his own posts.
In the opening match of the day the Australian Indigenous under-18 side wrapped up its tour of the Pacific with a 48-16 win over the New Zealand Maori under-18 side.
The match was marred by an ugly all-in brawl in the final minute which saw two players sent to the sin bin. – AAP