Manchester, United Kingdom — Australia coach Mal Meninga hailed his side's defensive
effort as they clinched a third consecutive
Rugby League World Cup title with a
dominant 30-10 victory over Samoa on Saturday.
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Skipper James Tedesco and Latrell Mitchell each scored a
brace of tries, Liam Martin and Cameron Murray also crossing, with Nathan
Cleary kicking three conversions in a victory that never looked in doubt.
Much to the delight of the partisan 67,502 crowd at
Manchester United's home ground, Samoa's Brian To'o got one back for the
Pacific Islanders, converted by Stephen Crichton, the centre also grabbing a
try of his own.
"The first half was exceptional, we did what we needed
to do," Meninga said, with his team racing out to a 14-0 half-time lead.
"In the second half we scrambled well, a man down but
we still scored points. It's what you do, you work for each other.
"We brought our best game tonight. We've had a long
year but have been rewarded for effort tonight. What a way to finish our 2022
season.
"I'm really happy with the end result for us. It's been
a tough, arduous year with the
NRL and State of Origin so to come out and
produce that effort, that was tremendous," he said, with the Kangaroos
having conceded just eight tries for 52 scored over the tournament.
Samoa coach Matt Parish believed the yellow card handed to
Kangaroos lock Angus Crichton for a leading elbow to the face of Samoa's Chanel
Harris-Tavita -- which left him out cold -- should have been red.
"Five minutes into the second our hooker gets elbowed
in the head and gets carted off, the referee makes a weak decision and puts him
in the bin, I'm dumbfounded," Parish said.
Meninga, however, played down the non-severity of the
decision by referee Ashley Klein.
"My view is that he should have stayed on the field,
that's just silly," the Australian said.
- Where to from now? -
Turning to the international calendar, long a thorn in the
side for for the global development of rugby league, Meninga was keen to see
the International Rugby League come up with some dates for touring.
"I'm coach of the World Cup winners and like I've said
many times, particularly the last few days, where to from now?" he said,
hailing the World Cup as a fine insight into the power of the 13-a-side rugby
code.
"I thought the whole tournament was excellent, a good
showpiece, the final was great, it shows where international game is going to,
to have Samoa in there which is great for the international game.
"We're looking forward to the decision makers making
the next decision about where we go to.
"We need a schedule discussed and to work towards. We
can only deal with the cards you're dealt with.
"The IRL are going to sit down before the end of the
year, that's what I gather from this, so hopefully they do that and we have
some sort of schedule sorted for the beginning of next year."
Samoa's Parish called the final result "disappointing,
but not the effort or commitment of the guys".
"We probably never got really close enough to put any
pressure on them.
"We didn't take our chances as we should have. We
needed a lot of things to go right for us today. We were down to 19 players,
that's all we had left... just so courageous and they're a great team."
Samoa skipper Junior Paulo admitted to feeling a bit of
"FOMO", or fear of missing out, on the parades throughout not just in
Samoa but also among the Samoan diaspora in western Sydney, New Zealand and the
United States in support of the Pacific Islanders.
"It's about being able to inspire not just the youth
but the next generation coming through," said the prop, one of several
players in the Samoa team to have opted to represent a country of heritage
rather than traditional powerhouses Australia and New Zealand.
"We can unite this beautiful nation that we get to call
home."
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