Lindsay Collins leaves NRL world in awe after astonishing Kangaroos feat

Roosters prop Lindsay Collins has left the rugby league world speechless after scoring two tries in the first half in the Kangaroos' 36-18 win over New Zealand on Saturday night. The Kangaroos came out on fire against New Zealand with Valentine Holmes repaying Mal Meninga for his faith in the back after scoring the opening try.

However, Aussie and New Zealand fans were left stunned at the next two tries with unlikely star Collins proving his own in the representative arena with a sensational double. The first try saw Dylan Edwards go up and knock the ball back.

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Hamiso Tibau-Fidow picked up the loose ball and rushed towards the line, before offloading to Collins who was waiting in support and scored with his first touch of the ball from the bench. And Collins was once again there to score the second to give the Kangaroos an 18-6 lead.

Harry Grant had joined Collings in coming on from the bench and was wreaking havoc around the ruck. And Grant once again ran from 10 metres out to catch the New Zealand defenders in all sorts, before firing a cut-out ball to Collins who collected the ball and stumbled his way over the line for a brilliant double.

Collins was just as stunned as viewers to have scored his first ever career double and admitted after the match he was still coming to terms with the feat. "I think the first one I nearly tripped over my own feet there, lucky the line was right there," Collins joked.

"Any try is a good try for a front-rower. So I will take them. Especially a double. That is a pinch myself sort of thing." NRL fans were quick to react with similar astonishment at Collins' brilliant feat with fans joking he could be the new try-scoring machine.

Mal Meinga praises Kangaroos after dominant victory

Cameron Munster was battling the flu throughout the week, but managed to take to the field and put in a commanding performance at AAMI Park. The Kangaroos will face New Zealand again next week in the ultimate showdown, but coach Mal Meninga was thrilled with how his team turned out on Saturday night.

"It was an excellent performance and the things we wanted to get through we did," Meninga said after admitting the players were "fun to coach".

"Our second half was amazing - our completion rate was great and we controlled field position and we've got some quality players in our footy team who can take advantage of that. Things are working well for us but we put the effort in."

The Kangaroos have now won eight of their past nine against the Kiwis, who last tasted victory in Australia in 2015. New Zealand coach Michael Maguire wasn't too downbeat after the loss and said he saw areas of improvement before the rematch next week.

"There was a lot of good about it and we'll take a fair bit out of what we need to do for next week," he said. "We need to tidy up as we just put a lot of pressure on ourselves. It was a pretty even game at half time but in the second half we weren't were we needed to be."

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