Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens hailed his players after they braved the intimidating atmosphere of a seething Eden Park to seal a 34-20 Four Nations victory over New Zealand on Saturday.

A crowd of over 44,000 packed into the traditional home of rugby in Auckland and booed throughout the singing of Advance Australian Fair before the game, with every single member of the 24-man Kiwi squad lining up for the haka.

Frustrated supporters then launched bottles onto the field midway through the second half when the Kangaroos opened up a 34-10 lead.

"I was very proud, particularly considering the crowd, the atmosphere and all 24 of their players going out there for the haka, they did everything they could to intimidate us, so it was pretty hard with some young guys out there," Sheens said.

"I said in the box before the game that it would be a great win for us and I was real proud."

Sheens denied the atmosphere fired his players up and said the performance was their best of the tournament so far, leaving him with some selection headaches ahead of next week's final in Brisbane.

Todd Carney, Dean Young, Matt Scott and Chris Lawrence all made their debuts, with Lawrence scoring a try midway through the second half to cap off a memorable evening for the 22-year-old.

"If it had stirred us up you would have seen us play more aggressively, but we didn't, we played smart footy and I think we showed that with the way we put the ball in the corners and scored some good tries," Sheens said.

"I was pleased with all of the new guys and it gives me some decisions to make next week."

Stand-in skipper Cameron Smith, deputising for Darren Lockyer, said the atmosphere was one of the most hostile he had played in and revealed he was almost hit by a plastic bottle thrown from the crowd when he was lining up a conversion.

"It was loud at the start during our national anthem with the crowd booing, that could have got to some blokes, but I thought we showed real maturity, particularly with the guys who made their debuts," Smith said.

"Anything the crowd does we can't control, the crowd are passionate about their side and their country and will do what they can to get them over the line.

"One (bottle) just came over my left shoulder but that sort of stuff is done to put you off, but I just had to compose myself and put it through the posts, which is what I did."

New Zealand coach Stephen Kearney lamented his side's display and hoped the disappointment of their performance would serve as an incentive to improve next week.

"It was very disappointing, we have high standards and I don't think we reached them at all tonight," Kearney said.

"I would hate to think the lads thought it would be easy because of the changes they made, but we produced our worst performance of the tournament at Eden Park."

Skipper Benji Marshall denied his side were overawed by the occasion.

"I can't put my finger on what went wrong, if I knew, I would have done something about it, you can't play the Aussies out of your own half for so long and expect to win," Marshall said.

"We let ourselves down, we let the crowd down and we let the country down."

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