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SYDNEY - Brett Lee, the lightning-quick Australian bowler, talked this week of the bonds he has with a couple of the English cricketers.
"My feeling is there is room for both," said Lee, of his ability to hold friendships across the Ashes divide while still giving his all on the sports battlefield.
There's a famous picture to prove it, which shows England's Ashes hero Freddie Flintoff consoling a beaten Lee at Edgbaston.
On the face of it, there has been little friendly fire in this year's Tri-Nations league series.
The flare-ups and wind-ups have dominated proceedings, with rival transtasman coaches Brian McClennan and Ricky Stuart in combat mode as well.
There is another side to the story, though.
Many of the test rivals are club-mates. Parramatta friends and test foes Nathan Cayless and Nathan Hindmarsh actually did some training together before the series.
By far the most significant camaraderie between two test rivals played out last year, and it helped change the course of the game's history.
Warriors captain Steve Price and the champion Kiwi halfback Stacey Jones became firm friends during the Warriors' 2005 NRL season.
And as last year's Tri-Nations approached and McClennan and Kiwi captain Ruben Wiki, among others, tried to gently persuade Jones out of international retirement, Price joined in.
The Australian forward is at pains to say that he was just one among many voices, yet it's hard to imagine the words of an international opponent, and such a highly respected one, not making a special mark on Jones.
Price was mainly concerned that his friend was struggling to see the big picture, that by doggedly sticking to his retirement word he could miss out on a career-defining series.
But Price wasn't just intervening for his friend's sake, and wanted to do his bit for the international game.
"I spoke to him a lot about it. I was ripping in to him about coming back," says Price.
"It wasn't all me but I was just giving it to him from an opponent's point of view.
"The Kiwis didn't have a halfback without him. I told him that if he came back, it would lift what they are trying to build in the Kiwis and the pride in the black jersey."
Price was one of the Australian players who would be lining up against Jones. Not surprisingly, the Kangaroo coach, Wayne Bennett, struggled to find the heart-warming aspect when Price told the Broncos boss what he'd been up to.
"Wayne Bennett really got in to me when I told him," recalled Price this week.
"He said I was bloody nuts, that basically they didn't have a halfback without Stacey. I told him it would be good for the game."
It certainly was, as the Kiwis re-wrote history with a crushing 24-0 win in the final at Leeds to end a half century of series heartbreak against Australia and give hope of a league test revival. It also led to Bennett's acrimonious departure as Kangaroo coach.
As Price says, Jones' return was an incredible story which continues on into the 2006 series.
The little playmaker will be the key to the Kiwi hopes in tomorrow's Sydney final in what is set to be his last test appearance.
As Jones wrestled with his decision last year, he saw the loss of halves Benji Marshall and Thomas Leuluai as his call to arms.
"Maybe it's meant to be, that I must have to do it," he has said.
His wife Rachelle was pregnant and due to give birth in late November but she gave her blessing.
Initially, it was for two tests against Australia, but the comeback rolled on in extraordinary fashion.
Jones had already committed to spending time at his new French club Les Catalans so joined the Kiwis just two days before one of the tests against Great Britain and 24 hours before a non-series game against France with the final just eight days away.
Incredibly, he returned to Auckland to be with Rachelle as she gave birth, then jetted back to England to join the Kiwis a day before the final in Leeds.
"I was fairly buggered from about halftime, and I certainly was when it was all over," he has recalled.
Price came off the bench in the final, and suggests he helped blade his own career by helping encourage Jones back to tests.
"There is no way that any of it would have happened if Stacey hadn't been at halfback," says Price.
"It is a remarkable story, especially considering Rachelle was pregnant which was a big concern to him. He ended up flying from England to New Zealand and back in the week of the final.
"I say to Stacey all the time, 'I helped convince you to come back and it basically cost me my representative career'.
"I hated losing that final and it basically cost me my spot. But I'll look back and be pretty proud that I had a little bit to do with something that was quite unbelievable."
