World Cup Quarter Finals: New Zealand vs Scotland

[DIEHARD]

New Zealand vs Scotland
Leadingley Stadium, Leeds

[DIEHARD]

Go Scotland! It'll be a thumping but I hope they can hold in and give it a shot.

[DIEHARD]

[DIEHARD]

Saturday November 16
QUARTER FINAL 1: NEW ZEALAND V SCOTLAND
6.30am AEDT LIVE on 7mate | 2pm replay on 7mate

[TITAN PETE]

NZ's Vatuvei ready for Scotland

AAP
6:32am Fri 15th November, 2013


Hulking Kiwis winger Manu Vatuvei looks set to line up against Scotland in the Rugby League World Cup quarter-final after coming through a fitness test on a troublesome knee injury.

Vatuvei completed the captain's run on Friday (AEDT) unscathed, although he was left icing his knee during the closing stages of the session.

Kiwis coach Stephen Kearney is cautiously optimistic Vatuvei will be a starter for the defending champions.

"We just need to wait and see, to see how he pulls up from his bump to his knee," he said.

Kearney has confirmed his 17-man squad to take on Scotland after originally naming 19 players, with Sam Kasiano and Jason Nightingale dropping out.

"Sam Kasiano has played in every game so far, he even played in the warm-up game," Kearney said.

"We've worked him pretty hard, maybe that's why his knees are a bit sore, but I'm sure he'll be grateful for the week off."

Kearney has opted for Jesse Bromwich and Ben Matulino as his starting props, with Sam Moa, Jared Waerewa-Hargreaves and Frank-Paul Nu'uausala joining Elijah Taylor on the bench.

He has also elaborated on his decision to start Kevin Locke ahead of Josh Hoffman, saying he needed to give the Warriors fullback another chance to impress after not getting the run of play in his only outing so far against France.

"Eighty per cent of it was me just wanting to make sure that I'm making the right decision, I needed to have another look to see if he could offer the group something," Kearney said.

Kearney said Hoffman could have played with an injection into his shoulder.

"But with two outside backs, plus Thomas Leuluai, going down last week it did throw us out a bit."

Kearney insists he doesn't regard the Scotland game an opportunity to experiment, and has warned his players to prepare for a fired-up Bravehearts side.

"We've done all our experimenting," he said. "I think that would be disrespectful to the Scottish side.

"I've asked the lads to put themselves in their shoes this week and imagine how they'd be feeling and how they'll have been training after they got the result from the Tonga match.

Kearney is well aware of the threat posed by Scotland captain Danny Brough, a team-mate of his when they won the Challenge Cup with Hull in 2005.

"I knew Broughy always had talent," Kearney said. "I could see that from the year that I spent with Hull FC.

"He's a good lad but I'm hoping he doesn't have too good a game tomorrow night."

[TITAN PETE]

New Zealand v Scotland preview
By Dominic Brock
NRL.com
6:30am Fri 15th November, 2013


New Zealand v Scotland
Headingly Carnegie Stadium, Leeds
Friday 8pm (UK time)
Saturday 7am (AEDT), 6am (AEST)

The success of the United States at this World Cup has taken some attention away from the sensational run of Scotland's Bravehearts at the tournament. The Scots were widely considered outsiders in their group against the highly fancied Tongans and an Italy side featuring several veteran NRL stars, yet they went through the first stage of the Cup undefeated. It wasn't easy – they pipped Tonga 26-24 in a nail-biter before battling out an entertaining 30-30 draw with the Italians, then beat the USA 22-8.

Even then, they still had to watch on nervously while Italy took on Tonga for a place in the final eight, but fortunately for the Bravehearts the Tongans prevailed to end Italy's tournament.

The only other undefeated teams at this World Cup are Australia and Scotland's next opponents, New Zealand. The Kiwis' Cup defence has gone pretty much to plan so far – they were scratchy in their 42-24 tournament opener against Samoa, sharper in their 48-0 thrashing of France, and impressive in their 56-10 routing of Papua New Guinea. With talent all over the park they'll start as warm favourites here.

In New Zealand team changes, Kevin Locke has taken the fullback spot from Josh Hoffman, despite Hoffman recovering from a shoulder knock he suffered against Papua New Guinea, while Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Frank Pritchard and captain Simon Mannering are set to return to the starting pack. Winger Manu Vatuvei will undergo a fitness test for his troublesome knee, with Jason Nightingale on standby. Sonny Bill Williams was battling a shoulder injury and the flu earlier in the week but is expected to play.

Watch Out New Zealand: Scotland's major strength in the group stage was the playmaking skills of their halves duo, Super League's Man of Steel Danny Brough and Panthers recruit Peter Wallace. Brough contributed two try assists and kicked three goals in the win over the USA, and will be the man to make the big plays while Wallace plays the safety-first organiser role at halfback (Brough has been prone to a few mistakes, leading Scotland's error count with six). Both halves have strong kicking games which will test out the Kiwis' back three and help Scotland match New Zealand in the territorial battle.

Watch Out Scotland: Where do you start? Sonny Bill Williams produced a near-perfect performance against the Kumuls, scoring a hat-trick and causing mayhem every time he met the defensive line. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck has been a revelation on the wing with four tries and six line breaks. Kieran Foran and Shaun Johnson make up one of the best halves combinations on the planet, and Issac Luke has been the form hooker of the World Cup. It's going to be a lot for the Scotland defence to contain.

Key Match-Up: Kieran Foran v Danny Brough. Brough may be the key man for Scotland but he'll meet his match in Foran, who leads all players for try assists at this World Cup (seven, two more than the next best Joseph Paulo and Sam Tomkins). Kieran is the complete five-eighth – a good short kicking game, great passing game, aggressive in defence, an eye for a try and dependable as well with just one error in three World Cup matches so far. Brough will need to be at his very best in order to upstage Foran and make the Bravehearts competitive here.

Where It Will Be Won: New Zealand's attack. The Kiwis have shown signs of sloppiness in defence in this tournament – leaking 24 points to Samoa was a less than impressive start – but it's barely mattered as they've been the highest-scoring team at the World Cup by far, averaging close to 49 points a game. Scotland's defence will need to be near-perfect to contain the Kiwis, who have as much strike power in the forwards as the backs. If the men in black are their usual selves with ball in hand, we fear the Bravehearts don't stand much chance.

Televised: 7mate – Live 6.30am Saturday (NSW), 5.30am (Qld).

The Way We See It: The Kiwis have just been warming up with their opening three games but they need to switch on now, with a likely blockbuster semi-final against England looming after this match. They won't want to leave any room for improvement after their performance against Scotland, which is bad news for the Bravehearts. New Zealand to win by 30+.

[DIEHARD]

Telecast has just begun on 7Mate. Loving Scotland in this World Cup. Im hooked for good.

[TITAN PETE]

Scots playing good footy but there's the hole & Kiwis score

[C-Whiz]

I enjoyed this game. As soon as the Kiwis opened them up it was all over but Scotland just couldn't finish any of the plays they started. So many wasted opportunities, so much ball thrown out over the sideline!

How good was Frank Pritchard? That ball he picked up on his toes and ran it back on their own goal line. Great skills for a massive unit.