BBC SPORT | Rugby League | Kiwis survive Saints scare

St Helens 26-38 New Zealand

New Zealand ran out winners at Knowsley Road on Friday, but it was far from convincing.

The Super League champions fielded an inexperienced side against the tourists and many pundits were expecting a thrashing.

The Kiwis, ranked second only to Australia, looked dangerous with the ball in hand, but made far too many mistakes to please their coach Gary Freeman.

I'm really proud of the players, I'm a bit disappointed that we lost in fact - morally we were the winners

Ian Millward
St Helens coach

St Helens were without seven members of their victorious Grand Final team but they did enough to embarrass a full-strength Kiwis side.

The home side, comprising a host of reserves and new signings, scored five tries to the visitors' seven to highlight flaws in New Zealand's defence.

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The Kiwis took time to get into their stride in their opening win at Hull on Tuesday and a greasy ball once more worked against them here.

But it was from one of a series of errors that the tourists went ahead on four minutes, second rower Ali Lauiti'iti making Anthony Stewart pay for a dropped pass by forcing his way over for the opening try.

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New Zealand would spend most of the first half camped inside the home half only for poor finishing to prevent them from scoring more regularly.

But former Warrington centre Nigel Vagana showed clinical finishing to grab the first of his two tries and substitute forward Tony Puletua used his strength to power over for another touchdown.

Pictures from the match

St Helens struggled to stay in touch at times but they managed a couple of first-half breakaway tries.

Hooker Keiron Cunningham was the architect of both, setting up Mick Higham with a quickly-taken tap penalty and then putting in a grubber kick for Martin Gleeson.

Without their recognised kickers, Saints turned to unlikely marksman Barry Ward and he put over the first of three successful shots at goal to keep the home side in touch.

I'm very happy, it's a win - we scored some very good tries and we could have scored four or five more

Gary Freeman
Kiwis coach

New Zealand were reduced to 12 men just before the break when substitute Monty Betham became the first player on tour to be sin-binned.

They were still a man down when Saints grabbed a third try through right winger Ade Gardner, who took Gleeson's pass to go outside opposite number Francis Meli and cut the gap to just two points.

But the visitors appeared to have taken control with two tries in five minutes through forward Michael Smith and winger Henry Fa'afili.

That made it 26-14 but Saints hit back. Dave McConnell scooped up a kick from Mick Higham to touch down and Darren Albert grabbed his 25th try of the season from McConnell's chip.

However, the New Zealanders sealed victory with man of the match Vagana and Puletua both collecting their second tries and Swain taking his goal tally to five.