RLWC: New Zealand kick off World Cup defence with Samoa win

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With the near-14,000 fans packed into the Halliwell Jones Stadium baying support for Samoa, it was the South Sea Islanders who started brightly.

But New Zealand Captain's Simon Mannering two tries and Manu Vatuvei's hat-trick kicked off their defence of the Rugby League World Cup with a 42-24 victory in the end.

The Kiwis were quick to exploit Samoa's midfield underbelly, pummelled repeatedly to good effect by a strong pack of forwards led by Mannering and outstanding prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.

Rugby league's hottest property Sonny Bill Williams, in his first game for the Kiwis since the ANZAC Test of 2008 after defecting to union, ticked all the defensive boxes in a generally muted attacking display, two of his trademark offloads ultimately leading to tries.

But after splitting the defence with 12 minutes to play, the union World Cup winner suffered an embarrassing schoolboy error in slipping as he went to ground the ball under no pressure and his try was disallowed, to jeers from the crowd.

Four tries in the opening 23 minutes of the first-half, allied with three more in the first eight minutes of the second period saw off a Samoan side that battled back gamely for five tries of their own in a game of crushing impacts.