Australia will go into tomorrow’s Rugby League World Cup final against New Zealand without Steve Price after the prop tore his left calf muscle in a training session.

The Kangaroos will probably promote Brent Kite in place of Price, while Brent Tate will also miss out on the final having suffered a hip injury.

New Zealand have named the same side which defeated England in last week’s semi final, Nathan Cayless and Sika Manu having avoided suspensions for high tackles.

Kiwi coach Stephen Kearney moved Thomas Leuluai from scrum half to hooker leaving Nathan Fien in the halves, and Australian hooker Cameron Smith thought the changes had worked well for New Zealand.

“I think his shift there is because of the way Nathan Fien is playing at half,” said Smith.

“He's obviously started in the dummy-half role but he's playing exceptionally well in the halves and I think that's the way it's worked out best for the Kiwis.

“Leuluai is a very good player and a lot of dummy-half players these days are ex-half-backs anyway. He's a great player and we're not going to be exploiting him more than any other player.”

“Although we've beaten them once in this tournament already, it's going to be a totally different story on Saturday.

“As soon as we finished the game against Fiji, we spoke about putting all the past games behind us. They won't really mean much this week.”

Kearney felt his players would have to improve to beat Australia, saying, “The Kangaroos have some wonderful players and they've played some fantastic football during the tournament so far.

“While we know we'll need to be a lot better against Australia, we're excited with the opportunity we have. We don't want to have any regrets on Saturday night.”

Australia will claim their tenth World Cup should they win, while for New Zealand it would be their first ever World Cup win.