Kiwis halfback Shaun Johnson has often talked about wanting to mature as a player. Last night, he came of age.
The 24-year-old produced a five-star man-of-the-match display to help lift the Kiwis to Four Nations victory over the Kangaroos.
He played a leading hand in Manu Vatuvei's first four-pointer before scoring a brilliant individual second-half try to push the Kiwis' lead out to 18-12.
Two sideline conversions and a penalty capped his scoring efforts but it was his mental and physical toughness that shone through on a golden night for the Kiwis.
For so long, Johnson has carried the hopes of New Zealand fans,
both with the Warriors in the NRL and at test level, but he has not always delivered.
But at Westpac Stadium, on one of the game's biggest stages and against New Zealand's biggest rival, Johnson's magic carried the Kiwis to the first tournament success since their 2010 Four Nations win.
"It's unreal. We set out a few weeks ago with a goal in mind and to achieve that goal is probably something I haven't really felt over my career so far," Johnson said.
"To be doing it in New Zealand, it's been really enjoyable. I had
family and good, close friends in the crowd and Dad came on to the field afterwards as well, so we really savoured it."
He stepped, he bombed, he organised and he kicked a couple of sideline conversions. His challenge now will be to produce that sort of display more often.
With the Kiwis hanging on to an 8-6 lead 15 minutes from halftime, he kicked into gear, evading four defenders before firing a 30m missile pass out for Vatuvei to pick off his bootlaces and steam in to score just inside the left touchline.
The Kangaroos made it their mission to target him in the second-half, and three late hits saw him drilled into the turf after he unleashed towering kicks, only for the match officials to turn a blind eye.
Undeterred, he kept at his work but took a bad option when he tried to outpace Michael Jennings, only to be dragged over the sideline, and with the Kangaroos having fought back to within two points, things looked ominous for the Kiwis.
"At that time of the game, we
just really needed to build some pressure and to come up with that, running out, I was pretty disappointed. But credit to them, they
put a lot of pressure on me throughout the whole night. But again, it
was how we reacted to it."
And react he did. Right when his side needed him to stand up and pull something out of the bag, Johnson gassed the Australian defence on the outside to race 30m for a scorching try as the game entered the final quarter.
His efforts overshadowed another fantastic contribution of the Kiwis forward pack, and another stellar effort from the interchange bench, but the No 7 was quick to praise
his side's big men for their role in his try.
"The forwards did a really good job of laying the platform. We spoke about it at halftime about getting out the back of them a bit more and just a quick ruck, what they've been doing all tournament, and I was just able to get through there and reward them for the work they had done."
