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Australia have the chance to atone for their hefty loss to New Zealand in last year's Pacific Championships when the sides meet for a rematch in Christchurch.

Australia's last meeting with New Zealand has haunted Isaah Yeo for a year as the Kangaroos captain promises improvements on a "clunky" last start in the rematch.

The Kiwis' 30-0 drubbing in last year's Pacific Cup final marked Australia's heftiest Test loss in 115 years of international matches.

The defeat rippled into this year's series as coach Mal Meninga flagged a new era for the national team by dropping stalwarts James Tedesco, Daly Cherry-Evans and Jake Trbojevic.

But as he begins helping Australia to write their next chapter, newly appointed skipper Yeo admitted the last meeting against the Kiwis was still raw.

"It's sort of stung for the last 12 months," the four-time NRL premiership winner said ahead of Sunday's clash in Christchurch.

"It was a really disappointing way to finish the season, particularly in this jersey, where the expectation when you wear this jersey is you have success.

"Those boys who were part of that last year, they get an opportunity to try and turn that around a little bit. It was certainly one that stings."

Yeo insisted the Kangaroos would not be weighed down by recent history when they took the field at Apollo Projects Stadium, given only seven players remain from the 30-0 thrashing.

"We touched on it when we first came back into camp, addressed the lessons that we learned, but the reality is it's a different squad," Yeo said.

The Kiwis have also moved on from their big win over Australia as Stacey Jones prepares to blood five debutants for his first game at the helm.

"It's a new start for us, it's a new chapter, it's a new team," said assistant coach Nathan Cayless.

"We have to start again. That's really important, the boys know that."

The Kangaroos are intent on improving on their last-start 18-0 defeat of a Tongan side who would have been well in the game at Suncorp Stadium had they found their rhythm close to the line.

Australia made 19 handling errors against Tonga and had one of their three tries via a Tom Trbojevic intercept, with another coming through Tom Dearden in the final minutes.

"Clunky would be a good way of putting it," Yeo said of the last performance.

"But I thought the way we defended our line particularly in pretty hot conditions, they're a big pack and that was spoken about all week.

"I think our best footy's still in front of us."