New Zealand coach Stephen Kearney said his side would need to improve in next week's game against England, despite thrashing Papua New Guinea 48-6. The Kiwis bounced back from their heavy defeat by Australia with a nine-try win, but Kearney says they will have to step up once again against England. "Like last week, there are areas we need to get better in," said Kearney. "I'll look at the tape and have a good look and see where we can improve and we'll look to do that this week." New Zealand restricted PNG, who caused England so many problems last week, to just one try at Skilled Park, and their tight defence particularly impressed Kearney. "I watched PNG 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," he said. "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." The issue of different refereeing interpretations - particularly at the ruck - between northern and southern hemisphere officials surfaced once again, with British referee Steve Ganson dishing out a string of early penalties.  | 606: DEBATE |
"Without being too critical, the interpretation of a few rules might have been a little different, but we didn't want to make that an excuse for us," said Kearney. Influential stand-off Benji Marshall banished memories of his anonymous display against Australia last week, having a hand in three of New Zealand's first-half tries before being withdrawn at half-time to protect a slight hamstring stain. "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. "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." PNG coach Adrian Lam made no excuses for his side's poor showing, admitting they had been well short of the standards they set in their honourable defeat against England last Saturday. "I don't think we played well tonight," said Lam. "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. "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 'mateship'."
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