NZ Kiwis coach Michael Maguire has shrugged off his team's struggles to overcome lowly Lebanon in their Rugby League World Cup opener at Warrington.
World No.1 New Zealand eventually prevailed 34-12 over the 13th-ranked Cedars, sparked by star fullback Joseph Manu midway through the second half.
But Lebanon exposed their rivals, scoring first in each half, and were probably unfortunate to lose half Adam Doueihi, after he was red-carded for abusing referee Grant Atkins, leaving his team shorthanded for the final 20 minutes.
The Kiwis dominated most facets of play, but paid the price for poor handling and failure to finish, losing three prime scoring opportunities over the dying stages through obstruction calls with the tryline at their mercy.
The performance was certainly inferior to those of closest rivals Australia and England against Fiji and Samoa respectively in their opening games, but Maguire isn't pushing the panic button just yet.
"The biggest thing I saw was that guys were jumping in and trying to take carries, when normally they wouldn't," he said. "That's time spent together.
"With all the [NRL] Grand Final guys coming in and Joey Manu coming back... Joey was trying that hard, sometimes that can play against you, when you're trying to put certain plans on. We'll be better for that."
New Zealand had a pre-tournament hitout against Leeds Rhinos last week, running up a big score and looking very impressive, but Maguire rested Manu, along with Dylan Brown, Marata Niukore, Isaiah Papali'i, Moses Leota, James Fisher-Harris and Scott Sorenson from the NRL season climax.
Of that group, only Leota and Sorenson did not take the field against Lebanon, after the former withdrew late with a slight groin niggle.
Manu was the standout individual performer, laying on a try for Brown, before scoring an incredible solo effort with a chip-kick and twisting run that broke the game open.
"Joey can definitely keep doing that," admitted Maguire. "It was more about the combinations and how we wanted to get our plays, which - credit to the Lebanon guys - they defended well."
Without saying as much, Maguire also hinted the Kiwis may have taken the Cedars too lightly, with bigger games looming at the business end of the competition.
"They showed their passion and showed how they wanted to play," he said. "I thought they defended their line really well too, which gives us a lot of stuff we can look at moving forward.
"We put a bit of pressure on at times and we were able to capitalise, but we didn't stay at it long enough to put more points on, I guess."
Maguire notes the continuity of many national programmes has been disrupted by COVID-19 over the past couple of years, so teams will get better as the tournament progresses.
"There are few blowout scores, but we've got the international game back up and running," he said. "We need it.
"We need these other countries to have an opportunity to play, because that's how we grow the international game.
"Over the past couple of years, a lot of teams haven't been able to come together and build, so as we go through the tournament, teams will definitely get better and the footy will improve."
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