Stephen Kearney expects New Zealand improvement in decider against England

New Zealand head coach Stephen Kearney expects his side to up their game in the final Test against England on Saturday.

Huddersfield Giants winger Jermaine McGillvary and Wigan Warriors half-back Matty Smith have both been brought in.

The three-match series is all square at 1-1 after England won the first Test 26-12 only for New Zealand to bounce back with a 9-2 victory at London’s Olympic Stadium last weekend.

But having said all that, if England are going to win this Test and the series, then they do need to do more with the ball and move it around a bit.

Throw in a hostile crowd, and these are the conditions their co-captain Adam Blair recalled from the rugged Wigan versus Brisbane Broncos World Club Series match at the DW Stadium in February.

Matty Smith and Jermaine McGillvary have come into the 19-man squad, with Smith widely expected to take the place of his Wigan teammate George Williams in the halves.

“As I’ve said from the start, it’s not any sort of consideration for myself whatsoever”, McNamara said when asked about the issue on Friday afternoon.

McGillvary, Super League’s leading try-scorer from the 2015 season, is hoping to make his England debut on Saturday.

“We’ve got an attitude where you have done so much hard work that you don’t want to let them in – you do feel exhausted but you just want to tough it out and last that extra minute or two”.

“We handled them well [last week], but for one disappointing try that was scored – the big thing for us now is to get more rhythm about us”, said the 25-year-old forward. “As an England team, we’ve got a style where we’ve attacked over the last couple of years and we’ve really enjoyed attacking that way”. We have been so close for a few years now and that’s been spoken of a lot.

“We will have to be at our best to win but we’ll relish the pressure of playing against a quality team in front of a full house at Wigan”, the coach said.

Kodi Nikorima, a late change at scrum-half for the game in London, will continue in the side with Tuimoala Lolohea – who he replaced – dropping out of the initial squad.

There were whispers after the defeat that England had lost home advantage by moving to the capital, but that will change when the teams walk out at a sold-out DW Stadium, despite the wet and windy forecast.