Mal Meninga drops telling Kangaroos selection hint in admission about 'clunky' Tonga Test

Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga concedes his side needs to sharpen up on a number of areas but has suggested he will resist making changes for Sunday's second Pacific Championship Test against New Zealand in Christchurch. The Aussies opened their campaign with an 18-0 win over Tonga last Friday night at Suncorp Stadium, despite making a litany of errors in a display described as "clunky" by NRL great Darren Lockyer.

Australia's new-look halves combination of Test debutants Mitchell Moses and Tom Dearden failed to gel with a spine that included another debutant in fullback Dylan Edwards and hooker Harry Grant. Edwards was guilty of a number of errors but Moses probably struggled the most out of all the debutants as he failed to replicate his State of Origin form. His link-up play with Grant and Edwards didn't go to plan in his return game from injury, having been sidelined since round 18 after a bicep injury in the Origin decider.

Moses also had a disrupted preparation due to the birth of his second child and the Kangaroos lacked cohesion throughout the match, coughing up 16 errors in a clearly disjointed display. But Meninga pointed to a short preparation that saw the Kangaroos only given six days to train together in camp as the main reason for their struggles in Brisbane.

"We had a lot of things that we had to get through in a six-day period but really happy with the attitude, really happy with intent and obviously the thing that we really concentrated on was our defence and we can move forward now," Meninga told SEN's Breakfast with Vossy & Brandy on Tuesday. "We have a 10-day prep leading into the New Zealand game so that's obviously going to be a focus for us around the way we play with the football in attack."

Mal Meninga drops major selection clue for NZ Test

League great Greg Alexander argued that Australia's spine needed time to gel and warned against the Kangaroos making changes for the next Test against New Zealand - a repeat of last year's final that saw the Kiwis thump Australia 30-0. And Meninga agreed with that assessment after dropping a huge hint that he was prepared to stick with largely the same side for the New Zealand Test, barring injuries in camp.

"We can't change our spine, that's the important part," the Kangaroos coach added. "And we were clunky so obviously we have to give consideration to cohesion. We've got to make sure that the team's ready to go for game two. Bringing new players in might be fraught with danger so my thoughts at the moment are to keep cohesion going and keep the team together."

Australia's coach says having a bye after the first two Tests before a potential final "makes things difficult", especially because the players will leave camp to return to their respective homes. But he says the focus for the players has to be on performing against the Kiwis on Sunday to guarantee their spot in the tournament decider.

"We haven't even made the final yet, that's the flip side. We need a good performance on Sunday and fluency is a really important part of that to get a result so we actually play in the final too," he added. "It's a game at a time, it's one of those cliches but we've got to make sure we play really well on Sunday to make the final."

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Tom Trbojevic and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow were singled out as two of the Kangaroos standouts against Tonga. And Meninga said while 'Hammer' was very quiet during camp and 'Turbo' was full of energy, he was thoroughly impressed by how they stood up on Friday night. "You could see that he (Hammer) was switched on and that he was mentally prepared, obviously off the back of what had happened at the back end of last year against the Kiwis," Meninga said about Tabuai-Fidow. "And Tommy (Trbojevic) had a skip in his step all week.

"So both of them had two different preparations but you could tell through the week that they were ready to go and they performed. And I was just really pleased with the way they handled the occasion.... They'e both fullbacks at their clubs but defensively they were outstanding."