League: Injuries may leave Luke sole skipper

Issac Luke could captain the Kiwis in the first test against England. Photo / Getty

Issac Luke may go from co-captain to sole skipper for the first test against England, with Adam Blair unlikely to be available for next weekend's match in Hull.

Injuries to Blair (calf) and Jordan Kahu (groin) dampened the Kiwis' celebrations after a solid 34-16 win over Leeds at Headingley this morning.

Blair's injury is thought to be the more serious of the two and he is likely to miss at least one, and possibly two, of the upcoming tests against England.

It's tough on the 29-year-old, who is coming off a career-best season with the Broncos and was revelling in the chance to captain his country, and will leave Alex Glenn and Lewis Brown jostling for the final interchange spot.

It will also heap more responsibility on Luke but, so far, he is revelling in it. Seen by many as a risky choice, Luke has embraced all aspects of the job, from taking the young players under his wing to fronting up to media. He was one of the standouts today against Leeds in a patchy performance from the touring side.

It ended up being a comfortable win but the game was in the balance for much longer than expected. More than half of the Leeds team who won the Super League grand final were missing - either injured or on England duty - but their replacements, a mix of wily veterans and willing youngsters, did a superb job.

The home side, playing before a season-best crowd of 20,158, took the lead with less than 30 minutes remaining before the Kiwis finally kicked into gear.

"It was very competitive in the first half and, at times, we made it hard on ourselves," said coach Stephen Kearney. "On defence we let Leeds dictate to us how they wanted to play. There were a lot of offloads."

The performance showed the value of a dress rehearsal because going in cold against England would have been asking for trouble. The players who went deep into the NRL finals - those from the Broncos, Roosters and Storm - seemed to cope better while others were gasping for their second wind.

"We got the conditioning we needed," said Kearney. "Some of our guys haven't played since the first week of September. Tonight was about blowing out those cobwebs."

The biggest challenge for the Kiwis will be organisation and structure. In the first 50 minutes, when the game was evenly balanced and a bit of a grind, the visitors lacked cohesion.

Neither Tui Lolohea nor Peta Hiku were directing traffic from the halves, with Luke orchestrating most of the sets from dummy-half and also doing a lot of their kicking. They got away with it at Headingley, but will be vulnerable in the test match unless things change.

"They did well," said Tuivasa-Sheck of the new halves combination. "It's not easy but they are building combinations, learning plays. There is a lot to do but they can do it."

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