League: Jones in post-birth dash to make final

Stacey Jones is set to fly out of Auckland tomorrow immediately after the birth of his third child to play halfback for the Kiwis against Australia at Leeds on Sunday morning.

The Kiwis camp are coy on the issue, saying they would love Jones to be part of their finals push and his presence would give everyone a lift, but stopping short of confirming his place.

"We don't know if he'll be here - we're going to try and get him over," said coach Brian McClennan.

Jones' wife, Rachelle, will have a caesarean to deliver the child, allowing the travel arrangements to be made with some surety.

Meanwhile, Motu Tony is training at halfback and Nigel Vagana will play at five-eighth should Jones not make the trip.

There is confidence that Paul Rauhihi will play, as he is recovering well from a badly corked thigh. Frank Pritchard is a day-to-day prospect after taking a head knock and sitting out early trainings, but Jake Webster is okay after also suffering a head knock.

The Kiwis are confident of giving the Kangaroos a run for their money. Even when they had played poorly against France and Great Britain the weekend before, they had come home the stronger, McClennan said.

"Against France we didn't have much ball in the first half. What we all knew was that in every game we have been better than every team in that last 10 to 15 minutes. We've been the better team coming home - we don't just think that, we know it. We're pretty buoyed by that and it's given us a lot of hope."

McClennan said they were jubilant to be in the final - no one had tipped them to make it.

"Sure we're the underdogs but every dog has its day."

The Kiwis were at the Golden Boot Awards last night, skipper Ruben Wiki receiving a special award for becoming the most-capped player in test history and wing Manu Vatuvei named international rookie of the year.

But there was no drinking - the team are on a self-imposed alcohol ban.

Kangaroos fullback Anthony Minichiello captured the prestigious Golden Boot award.

The New Zealand and Great Britain referees' controllers are set to outvote Australia to enforce a neutral referee for the final, ahead of Australia's preference for their man Tim Mander.

Steve Ganson will be promoted by New Zealand's Ian Macintosh and England's Stuart Cummings, and McClennan was happy with that.

"A neutral referee is good and it's also good to develop the referees - there's too much power [from Australia]."

Ganson controlled the first two Australia-New Zealand games and at times looked slow and out-of-touch, but has improved his fitness and performance.

Macintosh was particularly happy with his ruling of the play-the-ball, trying to keep tacklers from putting their hand on the ball as it is played and keeping the markers square. The linesmen will be NRL ref Jason Robinson and New Zealand's Craig Pascoe, and the video referee England's David Campbell, who did the Kangaroos-Lions game last weekend.

Macintosh admitted there would always be 50/50 calls and debate over results - such as the denial of a try to Kangaroos second-rower Craig Fitzgibbon at the weekend when he was ruled to have lost the ball in grounding. But Campbell had been consistent and was neutral.

Macintosh favours the system used in the two early games, with two video refs, one from each country, and the home country representative having final say.

Meanwhile, the Rugby League International Federation has agreed that next year's Tri-Nations will be played in Australia and New Zealand.

The Kiwis will face the Kangaroos here and in Australia and play the Lions at home twice. The final will be in Australia, probably at Sydney.