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New Zealand star Shaun Johnson admits his side were not at their best despite seeing off England on Saturday.
The Kangaroos hammered Fiji 64-0 in the other semi-final on Saturday, and Johnson was critical of his own performance and feels bothhe and New Zealand will have to improve if they are to successfully defend the World Cup title.
"Defensively I wasn't there and that's what I've built my whole game on this tournament. I guess if it wasn't for that play at the end, it would have been pretty hard to live with myself if we had to go home," he said.
"At times it felt like we were throwing the World Cup away [against England] but we stuck at it and never stopped believing," Johnson added.
"We knew if we could just get into the arm wrestle, we would be in with a chance.
"It was first time in the comp that we'd been put in that situation. We knew it was going to be like that at some point but we seriously felt nothing was going our way. To get ourselves back to eight-all going into the sheds at half-time was a big effort."
New Zealand are 3.50 to beat Australia, who are 1.33.
The Kiwis are 1.90 with an eight-points start.
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