New Zealand 36 England 24:New Zealand's stand-in captain Benji Marshall has accused England of being "disrespectful" by turning their backs on the haka before their Rugby League World Cup game in Australia.

England's players huddled in a circle facing inwards while the Kiwis performed the traditional war dance before kick-off at Newcastle.

New Zealand came from 24-8 down to win 36-24 — and Marshall, who led the side for the first time in the absence of Nathan Cayless, suggested that one of the reasons for their slow start was anger over their treatment by the opposition.

"To be honest, I thought it was a little bit disrespectful — and a few of the boys said that," said Marshall.

"If that's how they want to approach the game, that's their choice. It might upset a few of the boys, and maybe we could have started a bit better and worried about ourselves instead of worrying about them."

England coach Tony Smith defended his players' actions, insisting they did nothing out of the ordinary.

"Where we come from, we get in huddles," he said. "That's what we do — whether people do hakas at us or not. When our players in England want to pump each other up, that's what they do.

"I'm not sure you should sit there and take it as a victim. Some people in some cultures would find the tongue pointed at them as offensive as well.

"If our boys want to go off and do their thing while they're doing their thing, I think it should be equal for both sides."

New Zealand were heading for defeat after conceding four converted tries in the first 30 minutes, and coach Stephen Kearney admitted he was forced to deliver a tongue-lashing at half-time.

"It's not one you like giving, but I thought it warranted an animated one," he said. "I think the players recognised that themselves. The second-half performance showed what we are capable of.

"The pleasing thing for me was the defence. Basically my half-time talk was about how poor our defence was. I thought we fixed it up really well in the second half."

Trailing 24-14, the Kiwis scored 22 points without reply in the second half — with left winger Manu Vatuvei taking his try tally to four to set a new World Cup record for New Zealand.

Today's victory is expected to give the Kiwis a psychological advantage for next Saturday's first semi-final between the two sides in Brisbane, but Marshall insisted they will not be getting carried away with the result.

"They had players out in key positions, and we had some out as well," he said.

"If we can take anything out of the game, it's a valuable lesson that — if we don't turn up to play in the first half with the right attitude — then things can go wrong for us.

"England are a great side. They're not going to muck around, and we're not either. We're going to have to be on our game next week and start the first half the way we started the second half."