League: Kiwis may be hungry but underdone

Adam Blair was involved in finals football this weekend. Photo / Getty Images

The Kiwis are in danger of being underdone heading into next month's Four Nations against Australia, England and France.

It's a common and unavoidable situation for the world champions and some key players won't have touched a football in competitive action for almost six weeks when they meet Tonga in a warm-up in Rotorua on October 14.

Already Kiwis coach Stephen Kearney has trimmed his original train-on squad from 45 to 38 because of injuries.

They have lost some significant firepower with the likes of Manu Vatuvei, Roy Asotasi, Simon Mannering (all knee), Sam Rapira (chest) Taniela Tuiaki and Sika Manu (both ankle) sidelined.

But others are on enforced convalescence, including Benji Marshall, Frank Pritchard, Sam Perrett, Issac Luke, Dene Halatau and Lance Hohaia, who have all been off since the beginning of the month with their teams failing to make the playoffs.

Others joined them this weekend as their teams were bundled out of the finals.

There is an argument to suggest this is a good thing. It allows players to rest and recuperate after a long, hard season and tackle the Four Nations with renewed enthusiasm.

But players often talk about the fact match hardness can't be beaten, especially in international football.

The Kiwis often point to the fact they get better as a series develops. Combinations improve with more time together. It won't help, then, that many won't have played for a number of weeks.

"It's just one of those things," Kearney said. "It's unavoidable. It's not a great concern to me because it's can't be helped and we have got in place the train-on squad and that's what it's for. The positive is that we still have a number of the squad involved in finals football."

There were 15 of the wider squad of 38 involved in the playoffs in both the NRL and UK Super League heading into this weekend.

But only five from this year's Anzac test side - Nathan Fien, Adam Blair, Greg Eastwood, Jeff Lima and Jason Nightingale - were still involved. Australia had nine, including their entire backline save for Johnathan Thurston, and four others played last weekend.

Australia have a much larger pool of players to draw from and their important players tend to guide their teams into the important games at the end of the year. Many will still be match hardened when they begin the Four Nations.

The NZRL have arranged the Tonga test in Rotorua as a warm-up and had also tried unsuccessfully to schedule another against Fiji. Kearney said they will play an in-house game on October 10 as an alternative to work on combinations.

The 23-man Four Nations squad will be announced after the NRL grand final on October 4 and assemble two days later.

It will still be a decent Kiwis touring squad, despite the combined difficulties of injuries and enforced layoffs. As many as 16 of last year's World Cup-winning squad are in the train-on squad.

They have experience in the likes of Brent Webb, Hohaia, Halatau, Steve Matai and Marshall and others are in good form, like Ben Roberts, Fuifui Moimoi, Blair and Jeremy Smith.

They also have some exciting talent to choose from in Kevin Locke, Kieran Foran, Alex Glenn, Bryson Goodwin, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Antonio Winterstein.

"I'm very happy with what we have," Kearney said. "I'm very mindful of the players who can't make it but I'm very confident that whoever steps into the jumper will be fully committed to the cause and that's all we can ask for. It will be a very committed and hungry group."

Kiwis schedule
* October 14 vs Tonga, Rotorua
* October 25 (NZT) vs Australia, London
* November 1 (NZT) vs France, Toulouse
* November 8 (NZT) vs England, Huddersfield
* November 15 (NZT) - Four Nations final, Leeds