Coach Tim Sheens has defended his decision to leave Daly Cherry-Evans on the interchange bench for all but three minutes of Australia’s 30-18 Trans-Tasman rugby league Test win over New Zealand on Friday.

The Manly halfback has been in sparkling form for his club in the NRL but failed to oust long-time incumbent Cooper Cronk from the starting line-up and only made an entrance when Johnathan Thurston limped off with an ankle injury after 76 minutes.

It is not the first time the 25-year-old has been largely redundant on international duty with Sheens keeping him on the sidelines for the full 80 minutes of the 20-12 win over the Kiwis in Auckland two years ago.

“The game was in the balance and he covers the three positions,” Sheens said.

“You don’t just take Cam, (Smith), JT (Thurston) and Cooper off and it can disrupt the rhythm of the your game, as good as he is.

“Unless you get an injury it is not easy to do it, these guys are in the moment, they’re working hard, they’re organised.

“When I send out a message to the trainer to ask if they want a break they they tend to run away from him.”

Cherry-Evans played the bench role for Queensland in last year’s series and did see more game time under Mal Meninga, but Sheens said he does still have a role to play in future Tests.

“He always knows that it’s not sure if he’ll start early in the game if needed or later if need be,” he said.

“DCE really developed well as that 14th man in the World Cup and stole it away from other options. But if there’s not an injury and the game is tight, it’s not always easy to do it.”