Stephen Crichton kicked 11 conversions from 11 against France, and nobody should have been surprised. He is Canterbury’s first-choice goalkicker. Samoa gave the job to the player who already does it for his club, and it paid off with 26 points in a 78–4 win.

Other nations took a different route. Isaiya Katoa had 14 points for Tonga against England, from three conversions and four goals. At the Dolphins, he sits behind Jamayne Isaako, who led the competition with 117 goals in 2025 and played every game. A club has rarely needed a backup, so Katoa rarely kicks. For Tonga, the same player was suddenly the one with the tee.

Fiji’s Brandon Wakeham did something similar. He finished with 12 points from six conversions in Fiji’s 40–12 win over the Cook Islands, and he also set up three tries. Manly’s kickers are primarily Jamal Fogarty and Reuben Garrick, with Wakeham not among them. In club football, he’s a utility who plays his part. For Fiji, he became the man who made sure every try counted.

The contrast is worth noticing. Isaako, the Dolphins’ first-choice kicker, took the kicking duties for the Kiwis. The national side takes the club’s best boot. Tonga and Fiji went another way. Maybe they had no obvious first-choice kicker in the squad. Maybe the man in the halves was simply the best option on the day. Either way, the job landed on a player who doesn’t do it every week.

That’s a big ask. Goalkicking is a skill that thrives on repetition, a routine and a feel for the ball that comes from kicking week after week. A player who rarely does it at club level has to find that rhythm at a World Cup, in front of a crowd, with the pool table in the background. Katoa and Wakeham both did. It was the same story in the women’s tournament, where Jocelyn Kelleher kicked six goals in the Jillaroos’ 40–0 win on her Test debut.

Kicking rarely decides a match on its own. But when pool tables can come down to points difference, a team that goes seven from seven has an edge. As the tournament goes on, it’s worth watching who holds the tee, and who steps up when it matters.