South Africa and the Cook Islands met in Sydney on Friday night to determine who would challenge the USA for a spot in the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
The extra NRL experience the Kukis fielded shone with the Cook Islands moving one step closer to their first World Cup since 2013 with the 66–6 win.
It didn’t take long for the Kukis to open the scoring in front of the 2,413-strong crowd. Young Troy Dargan took advantage of a poor South African defensive read to send Vincent Rennie through a gaping hole for an early 6–0 lead.
Unable to make the most of a piggy-back penalty up the field, the Rhinos soon found themselves defending again. At least, trying to defend. Showing the quality of a professional footballer, 21-year old Dragan sent Vincent’s brother Reuben over the line for a 12–0 lead inside 10 minutes.
Things went from bad to worse to near catastrophic for South Africa.
Marata Nikoure bust through the line on the ensuing set for an excellent long-range try before the South African kickoff went out on the full. With Dargan again involved, the Cook Islands streaked down the left wing for their fourth try of the night to blow the score out to 22–0.
Well ahead of a point per minute, the Kukis were doing it easy.
South Africa’s defence was quite clearly below par to start, but they rumbled up the field on the limited occasions they had the ball. Joel Tubbs and Ash Bull — a pair of names made for props — showed some good signs out there.
As the clock caught up to the Cook Islands in the 22nd minute, Brad Takairangi spotted a massive hole as South Africa set their defence without an ‘A’ defender. Scooting through and handing it off to Dargan to dot-down himself this time, the Kukis pushed their lead out to 28–0.
With Dargan involved again for John Puna to score ahead of Paul Ulberg and Niukore claiming their second each of the night, the Cook Islands kept their pace above a point per minute through to halftime.
Eating their oranges down 46–0, the Rhinos could have packed up and gone home then and there. Instead, they got tighter through the middle and forced the Kukis into mistakes in the second half. The go-forward that threated in the first half came to fruition until big Tubbs was forced to kick on the last. With that extra yardage up the field, Ulberg scored his third for the Cook Islands to crack 50.
Down 54–0 and with the game all but gone, South Africa finally reaped the rewards of their better second half defence to score an entertaining try for their fans.
However, Dargan soon cut them up to cancel out the Rhinos meat pie to restore the lead to 54-points where it stayed until the 80th minute. Vincent Rennie opened the scoring and ended it with his try on the siren giving the Cook Islands a record-breaking 66–6 win.
Where It Was Won — Cook Islands
The NRL quality was obvious early in this one. Dargan hasn’t played any first-grade, but he’s in the Broncos system and is amongst elite footballers every day. His decision making was on-point early, and from there, the likes of Takairagi and Nikoure were provided with the go-forward they needed to score points.
Where It Was Lost — South Africa
The stats for this one aren’t readily available and that might not be such a bad thing for the Rhinos. Missed tackles really cost them tonight. On the rare occasions that they could keep the Kukis out and get up the field themselves, they looked like a competent football side. Some early defence would have built confidence and put them in the arm-wrestle. Instead, they leaked points and couldn’t pull the Kukis back once they started running downhill.
Man of the Match — Troy Dargan
Dargan had a field day out there tonight. Looking like he had all of the time in the world whenever he had the ball, the 21-year-old took full control of the side and guided them around the field. The Kukis aren’t short of powerful and exciting ball-runners. They just needed somebody to steer the ship and Dargan acted as the perfect captain.
An honourable mention goes to Joel Tubbs. He was great for the Rhinos before being stretchered off in the 56th minute.
You can see a replay courtesy of Bar TV Sports here:
