The Kiwis have done something both England and France failed to do, win their Rugby League World Cup warmup game, and what a win it was.

New Zealand thrashed Cook Islands 50-0 in front of 4638 spectators at Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster today, scoring nine tries in the process.

England's loss to Italy on Saturday and France losing to USA the day before, would have done little to lift the confidence of the world's third and fourth ranked teams, so conversely, the Kiwis should be in high spirits leading into their world cup opener, against Samoa on Sunday (UK time).

Thomas Leuluai hadn't recovered from his hamstring strain, so Kieran Foran started at five-eighth, while Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was added to the interchange as the 18th man.

Both teams agreed before the game to field an extra player and have unlimited interchanges, which meant that this fixture didn't have test status.

Before the game began the Kiwis performed a new haka, which was led by Issac Luke and when proceedings got underway it was New Zealand who were immediately dominant.

The Bulldogs duo of Sam Kasiano and Frank Pritchard were punching big holes up the middle of the field, while in the 15th minute Shaun Johnson put through a grubber kick that Jason Nightingale was the first to get to.

Three minutes later Elijah Taylor was in for the second Kiwis' try as the wheels started to fall off the Cook Islands team.

Manu Vatuvei recorded the third try, in the 22nd minute, latching onto a high ball and Shaun Johnson made it three from three with the subsequent conversion.

The final try of the half came just before the break, with Bryson Goodwin, who'd only been on the field for a couple of minutes grounding a grubber kick.

New Zealand were awarded a penalty try early into the second half.

In the remainder of the game Goodwin bagged his second try, while Johnson ran in 60m for a score. There were also tries to Locke and Nightingale as the game turned into little more than a training run for the Kiwis.

Josh Hoffman was even given some time in the halves, while Locke and Goodwin kicked goals as Kiwis coach Stephen Kearney no doubt went through all of his backup plans for the tournament ahead.

SCOREBOARD

New Zealand 50

(Jason Nightingale 2, Elijah Taylor, Manu Vatuvei, Bryson Goodwin 2, Penalty Try, Shaun Johnson, Kevin Locke tries; Shaun Johnson 4 goals, Kevin Locke 1 goal, Bryson Goodwin 2 goals)

Cook Islands 0

HT: 24-0