League: Advance, Australia's fears

Motu Tony may fill the gap at hooker. Phil Walter / Getty Images

Players from England will provide the crucial pieces of the jigsaw puzzle for the Kiwis team to play Australia a week from today.

The Kiwis need a hooker and a halfback, and none can be found from among those playing in the NRL.

The selectors will also be looking hard at bringing a prop and a centre/secondrower back from the Super League, with the provision that the travel makes it tough for those who have to play at the weekend then back up for an international the next Friday night.

But then Stacey Jones proved you can do it and come out on top, flying around the world and back to compete and win last year.

Never before has a Kiwi-Kangaroos test, and the test team selection, cornered so much interest in Australia. Ever since their 24-0 loss at Elland Rd, Leeds, in the Tri-Nations final last November, the Kangaroos coach and selectors and Australian Rugby League management have been working to return to the unquestioned world supremacy they had enjoyed since New Zealand last triumphed in a series in the early 1950s.

Coach Ricky Stuart called a pre-season training camp and named 44 prospective players, the first time that had ever happened.

Up to this week, he has been sparring with coaches including Wayne Bennett, who is pushing the case of Justin Hodges at centre, and Parramatta's Brian Smith, who is backing Timana Tahu.

Ex-internationals are weighing in with opinions that are fodder for the media, but the remarks are prompting angry and unwarranted responses from Stuart and others inside the Kangaroos camp. It's all a measure of the unease they feel at being last-time losers.

It is hard to see either team making more than injury-enforced changes to the squads which contested that game in Leeds.

The Kangaroos' chairman of selectors, Bob McCarthy, made that clear when asked about the prospects of 2005 player of the year Johnathan Thurston, who is in outstanding form, as against those of the injury-affected and in-and-out Andrew Johns.

"Look, form says he should be there, and Queensland will vote for him, but do you experiment in a test match?" McCarthy was quoted as saying of Thurston this week.

"If it was City-Country you'd throw him in. I know he has handled State of Origin before but it's test football.

"A couple of years ago you could have picked him given how weak international football was but the Kiwis and Poms are a lot stronger these days," McCarthy said.

That's a fillip the Kiwis will notice but take nothing from.

They are not defending a title, as their coach, Brian McClennan, has made clear. They are going out to win it again.

McClennan and his staff have again prepared a psychological theme for the players ahead of the game, as in the "Kaizen" philosophy of gradual improvement used by samurai and adopted for test one in Sydney last year, the "Welcome to the Jungle" approach to the game in Auckland then "Slay the Dragon" for the final.

He's not revealing it until after Friday's contest.

McClennan agrees there is little he can do in terms of rugby league instruction to individuals in the four days he has with the team.

"It's about getting everyone to be in tune with each other and everyone having a clear knowledge of what their role is, everyone being aware of our structures and what we're trying to achieve."

In that regard he is lucky. There will be few newcomers in this team. Most will be seasoned test players and well familiar with one another's play.

A bolter may be Brisbane wing Tame Tupou, because the Kiwis have to replace big Manu Vatuvei, whose hamstring injury will not allow him to be considered when the team is named on Sunday.

Warriors bench prop Evarn Tuimavave is an outside chance of taking that role in Brisbane but it looks more likely the selectors - coach McClennan and technical adviser Graeme Norton, Darrell Williams, Daryl Halligan and Tony Iro - will go for an English-based prop, probably St Helen's Jason Cayless.

Saints play Wakefield overnight so players from both clubs are better prospects for Kiwi selection for this game than are those from Hull and Wigan who play on Sunday.

Bradford meet Les Catalans overnight tonight and so Shontayne Hape and Lesley Vainikolo come into the frame for the Kiwis.

Harlequins and Huddersfield play on Sunday (NZT) and 'Quins half Thomas Leuluai is pretty well guaranteed to be the number seven, as there are few other options.

Those from England may be Leuluai, utility Motu Tony, who could start at hooker despite playing fullback for Hull, Cayless at prop and Hape as lock/centre as he was last year, plus David Solomona.

Wakefield, Solomona's club, spilled the beans on his chances by announcing yesterday that he would be released to play the test.

"He will be a big miss but we do not feel it would be right to deny him the chance to represent his country," said Wakefield chief executive Steve Ferres.

St Helen's coach Daniel Anderson, who was McClennan's predecessor with the Kiwis, confirmed that the NZRL have had feelers out on the availability of players.

"They've been in touch but it's not for me to say [who about]. There are blokes in the Super League who are under serious consideration, not just from St Helen's."

McClennan and Anderson had a good working relationship as coach and assistant and Anderson's take on the Kiwis in England is sure to have been absorbed.

There may be fewer Warriors in this team than has been the case since the club started.

Brent Webb, Clinton Toopi and captain Ruben Wiki are all musts but the rest are struggling.

The Aussie have worries too, for a change, despite their depth.

At prop, Steve Price is sure to be an automatic selection but Luke Bailey and Mark O'Meley are just back from injury, Jason Ryles is ruled out and Shane Webcke has retired.

There is the Johns dilemma at halfback. There is talk captain Darren Lockyer should be shifted back to fullback to make way for Trent Barrett or Thurston but while Lockyer doesn't see himself as a number one, he no longer has club boss Wayne Bennett as Kangaroos boss.

Debate rages over Mark Gasnier's likely selection. Former Kangaroos greats including Gorden Tallis say he should not play for the test team if he intends a switch to rugby.

Barring injury and suspension in this round of the NRL - and that's a big call given recent history - New Zealand's build-up looks less disrupted than that of the Aussies.

Those injury and suspension factors aside, the Kiwis will be serious contenders to win again.

* Possible lineups for Brisbane

KIWIS

Brent Webb
Jake Webster
Paul Whatuira
Clinton Toopi
Tame Tupou
Nigel Vagana
Thomas Leuluai
Ruben Wiki (c)
Motu Tony
Jason Cayless
Tony Puletua
David Solomona
David Kidwell

Interchange

Roy Asotasi, David Faiumu, Shontayne Hape, Nathan Cayless

KANGAROOS

Anthony Minichiello
Matt King
Mark Gasnier
Matt Cooper
Timana Tahu
Darren Lockyer (c)
Andrew Johns
Petero Civoniceva
Danny Buderus
Steve Price
Craig Fitzgibbon
Nathan Hindmarsh
Ben Kennedy


Interchange

Luke Bailey, Willie Mason, Mark O'Meley, Johnathan Thurston