Mike Nagy, Mike Kernaghan, Blake Signal and Ali Forsyth rounded off a dominant performance at the tournament as they thrashed the Australian team of Barrie Lester, Brett Wilkie, Aaron Wilson, Mark Casey 23-4 in the final at Burnside Bowls Club.

The New Zealanders found themselves 3-2 down early on before they recovered, claiming six consecutive ends on their way to the top of the podium.

In the other final to be held today, Australia’s Carla Krizanic, Natasha Scott and Rebecca Van Asch earned their country’s fourth title of the event by winning the women’s triples competition.

The trio confidently dispatched Emma Woodcock, Kathy Pearce, Anwen Butten of Wales 17-6 to seal the gold medal.

The result ensured they successfully defended the title that Scott won four years ago, alongside Lynsey Clarke and Karen Murphy.

A blistering start from the Australians enabled them to make light work of their Welsh opponents as they raced away to an 11-1 lead after just seven ends.

It proved to be insurmountable gap for the Welsh trio to bridge as Australia went on to record a convincing victory.

“We came here wanting to make the final, which we did, so we’re wrapped to go back-to-back,” Van Asch said after triumphing.

“Throughout the championships our starts have been really good so we wanted to keep that form going and maintain it.

“We knew that Wales would keep fighting back, so it was a matter of us trying to get as many in there as we could and play defensively when we needed to.”

The home supporters had been made to wait until the penultimate day of the competition to see a New Zealand team claim gold but they will get another two chances tomorrow.