It was a point gained rather than a point lost as Australia wrote another entry into their list of great escapes, the Kangaroos making a shaky start to their Four Nations campaign courtesy of a 20-all draw with New Zealand in London on Saturday night.

The Kangaroos looked headed for a shock defeat until Cameron Smith dived over with less than two minutes left on the clock, his try reviving memories of Australia's dramatic golden point win over the Kiwis in the 2006 Tri-Nations final and the series of close calls in their 2003 tour of England.

Captain Darren Lockyer admitted to calling on his recollections of those last-gasp wins as the Australians huddled together in their own in-goal, after Frank Pritchard looked like he had sealed the game for the World Cup champions with a 76th-minute four-pointer.

"We never gave the game away," Lockyer said.

"Five minutes to go in the in-goal I was thinking about the escapes we've had over here - in the end it was a valuable draw for us.

"A great escape again."

Bryson Goodwin's failure to convert the Pritchard try from the sideline left the Kangaroos trailing 20-14 with time winding down, but a short kick-off worked to perfection when Jarryd Hayne tapped the ball back for Johnathan Thurston to pick up the pieces.

From there Australia moved downfield, Smith crossing after his pass from dummy half had hit the ground only for Greg Inglis to keep the play moving.

"GI beat a few players like he always does and I just sort of popped up there," Smith recalled.

"We spoke about it before the game and then again at halftime that the big play might not come until the last couple of minutes.

"There wasn't too many heads down (after the Pritchard try) - we knew we were capable of scoring."

While neither side would be delighted with the result, the draw gave the tournament some much wanted credibility following fears Australia would romp away with the trophy in an embarrassing advertisement for international rugby league.

Instead, both sides now need to win both of their last two matches to secure a berth in the final, while England - who play Australia in Wigan on Saturday - need only win one of their remaining two matches after they beat France 34-12 in Friday night's tournament opener.

"At one stage it was a point lost from our of view and then at the end of it it's really a point gained," Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens said.

"I think we had the game, we had enough ball, but they just wouldn't lie down.

"The one point keeps us in but it also makes next week's game very important to us. We need to come up with a win so there's an element of pressure on us."

The Kiwis would understandably feel they deserved more than just a share of the spoils after overcoming a hammering in the penalty count courtesy of an ordinary display from English referee Steve Ganson.

They also recovered from a 14-6 deficit midway through the second half after Thurston had broken a 6-all halftime deadlock with the softest of tries thanks to a one-on-one strip on Lance Hohaia.

Junior Sau's try when he beat four players only heightened the intensity of an already frenzied pro-Kiwi crowd before Hohaia gave them a 16-14 lead just after the hour when he brushed past a flimsy Billy Slater tackle from a scrum win.

"That's footy - you can be in front for so long and Australia's that good a team they can come back from anywhere," skipper Benji Marshall said.

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