Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns are in the Pacific Championship final where they will play against Australia on Sunday and the Kiwis have a crucial game against Papua New Guinea to keep their spot in the upper echelon of the Pacific Championships. Kiwi Ferns are following the same flow from last season as they lost their first game against Australia and then defeated Tonga before beating Australia in the last game.

Kiwi Ferns and Australia have a combined tally of 22-36 points in their last three games. Six points separated these two teams in both games last year which shows how close this match up is and Kiwi Ferns will be hoping that they will be better off for a few weeks together heading into the final.

Apii Nicholls returns to fullback which bumps Shanice Parker back to the wing and Mackenzie Wiki out of the top-17 from the win over PNG. Annessa Biddle also returns to her edge forward role with Najvada George moving back to the bech and Otesa Pule keeps her spot on the bench ahead of Tiana Davison, after Pule missed the first game vs Australia. The other tweak is Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa returning to her starting prop role and Alexis Tauaneai sliding back to the bench.

Pule adds size to a Kiwi Ferns forward pack that was given a reminder about international rugby league in the loss to Australia. While Dragons and soon to be Bulldogs homies Teakaraanga-Katoa and Tauaneai have swapped roles in the two games so far, they have delivered similar mahi regardless of their starting position.

Teakaraanga-Katoa played 31mins as starting prop first up, with Tauaneai playing 43mins off the bench. They switched roles but Teakaraanga-Katoa played more minutes coming off the bench (40mins) and Tauaeneai had less minutes (36mins). George is likely to cover edge forward with Amber Hall rolling through 52 and 59mins (of 70).

Georgia Hale and Brooke Anderson balance out the powerful mahi of Kiwi Ferns big boppers. Anderson made 27 tackles @ 87% in 45mins vs Australia with Hale playing the full 70mins and churning out 54 tackles @ 94.7%. This flipped against PNG as Anderson played 70mins with 31 tackles @ 93.9% and with Ash Quinlan coming off the bench to play dummy half, Anderson moved to the middle forward spot to give Hale a break.

Hale played 53mins vs PNG with 25 tackles @ 89.2% tackling and she has a clear role in the Kiwi Ferns forward pack. Aside from the hookers, Hale had the most passes of Kiwi Ferns forwards in both games with 12 passes and then 18 passes. This enables Kiwi Ferns to shift the footy and with so much power on the edges, crisp distribution with strong decoy runners gives the edges more time and space to get busy.

Kiwi Ferns can also offer more offloads, if they are able to win collisions against Australia. After putting up three offloads in their first game, Kiwi Ferns had 10 against PNG and this stems from forwards breaking tackles. Kiwi Ferns had five tackle breaks in their forward pack vs Australia and while they won't hit the 26 tackle breaks mark they had vs PNG, they need a more commanding effort in the forwards to set up a win vs Australia.

The biggest differences between Kiwi Ferns and Kiwis have been dummy half running and kicking mahi. Kiwi Ferns have had 18 dummy half runs in two games while Kiwis have had 10. Tyla King and Gayle Broughton are building nicely as a halves combo, especially as they are both capable of long kicks. King is the better long kicker for territory as well as doing most of the short kicks, while Broughton does most of the high kicking.

Dummy Half Runs

Kiwis

Game one: 3

Game two: 7

Kiwi Ferns

Game one: 12

Game two: 6

Kicking Metres

Kiwis

Game one: 26 - 680m (Johnson)

Game two: 13 - 308m (Johnson), 1 - 6m (Nikorima), 1 - 14m (Tapine)

Kiwi Ferns

Game one: 5 - 101m (King), 8 - 209m (Broughton), 1 - 47m (Anderson)

Game two: 4 - 54m (King), 2 - 64m (Broughton)

This gives Kiwi Ferns a strong kicker on both sides of the ruck and that's a basic element of winning rugby league games. Kiwis should be able to survive with one kicker doing most, if not all of the mahi against PNG but having one kicker do everything has been a hinderance to Kiwis performance.

Tapine with a grubber?! 🤯#PacificChamps pic.twitter.com/SbBur98xDf
— NRL (@NRL) November 2, 2024

Kiwis did have Kodi Nikorima and Joseph Tapine offering a kick each last weekend, although Nikorima's was a grubber and Tapine kicked a loose ball for his epic try that gave Kiwis a sniff of victory. Unfortunately, Kiwis were unable to roll through the droppie procedure with clarity and sharpness.

Perspectives about Kiwis footy will vary, however the limitations of an emerging squad have been on display in both losses. Despite the inexperience and a third maybe fourth tier halves combination, Kiwis have epitomised the James Fisher-Harris mana in both losses with the comeback at Mt Smart showing plenty of positive signs for Kiwis.

Fisher-Harris, Tapine and Isaiah Papali'i were in the forward pack that was steamrolled early in the loss at Mt Smart but they also led the physicality required to fight back into the contest. These three have been foundation elements of Kiwis footy having played for Aotearoa in three consecutive years and we now have two games in a row where the younger emerging Kiwis have been among the best players for Aotearoa.

Keano Kini, Matthew Timoko, Will Warbrick, Phoenix Crossland, Naufahu Whyte, Griffin Neame and Leo Thompson have all played five or fewer Tests yet their impact for Kiwis has been fabulous. Without time or space to build out more development opportunities for Kiwis, the integration of the younger lads is crucial to establish the pool of players who can step up to the hectic international rugby league arena.

Timoko and Neame grew up in the NZRL pipeline, before debuting last year with Thompson (who became a starting NRL prop a few years after switching from rugby union to league). Kini and Whyte were in the Kiwis squad last year with Warbrick playing in the random NZ-A game. Crossland has been one of the most impressive emerging Kiwis thanks mainly to his effort and intensity without the footy, now bolstering Kiwis dummy half depth alongside Jeremy Marshall-King and Brandon Smith.

Jordan Riki got a taste in Christchurch while Erin Clark, Casey McLean and Trent Toelau haven't been deployed in the Pacific Championships. Riki and Clark were in the 2022 Kiwis squad for mid-season footy, but they are still behind the likes of Neame, Whyte and Thompson. Given how the younger lads were kinda shook at Mt Smart and the limited development opportunities at this level, there seems to be a plan in place for brewing younger Kiwis.

McLean and Toelau could have got game time if there were injuries/suspension in the outside backs or halves/hooker. In assessing why they haven't been given a crack, it follows the theme of players spending time in Kiwis squads where they catch the squad vibe and get a taste of how crazy international rugby league is.

This is different to the NZ-A fixture last year which gave players a taste of Kiwis camp without any official eligibility choices being made. One would assume that by being part of the Kiwis squad for this Pacific Championships, McLean and Toelau have made their intentions clear in where they want to play representative footy. The only place available for international rugby league teams to develop talent is carrying them in the squad and this is the latest example, following on from Neame/Riki/Clark in 2022 then Kini and Whyte last year.

After enjoying a near full strength Kiwis squad last year aside from the dummy half rotation, Aotearoa's rugby league depth has been challenged this year. Kiwis have lost two games against more experienced international rugby league teams but there have been more than enough positive wrinkles to suggest that Kiwis rugby league is simmering away nicely. Whether it's roughly 30+ players being part of Kiwis in the last two Pacific Championships or two bumper crowds (17,005 in Christchurch and 22,363 in Auckland) in both islands of Aotearoa, don't let the results fool you about rugby league in New Zealand.

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