League: Kiwis raring to go as Jones steps back into the breach

Stacey Jones has again come to the rescue of the Kiwis, stepping into the halfback role for the game against Great Britain at Huddersfield tomorrow morning.

Jones answered an SOS after Lance Hohaia was sidelined mid-week with ankle ligament trouble.

He arrived in team camp in Manchester yesterday and took part in a training session that coach Brian McClennan labelled the best of the series so far.

"I thought we looked very crisp," he said.

"It's a hardened team now, we're rested after the week off - even though we played England last weekend the preparation was more relaxed - but now you can see the spring in their step.

"Everyone's raring to go."

McClennan expects a much more hardened Great Britain side and welcomes the confidence boost the team will get from Jones' involvement.

"With Lance out it would have made it difficult. I was confident we would have come up with something, but the something we came up with would not be as good as Stacey Jones."

The halfback is unlikely to be available for the final at Elland Rd, Leeds, in a fortnight. His wife Rachelle is due to give birth in Auckland that week.

McClennan was not talking about the final: "We can't win the final unless we make the final - we're just looking at this weekend."

But they can lose by 17 and still make it.

McClennan expects the game to be close and wants the Kiwis to finish strongly.

"We're a hard side to handle in the last 10 minutes. We've proved that in all three games.

"We wear teams down, our guys are hard to tackle, they [Great Britain] couldn't contain our power."

McClennan agreed that Awen Guttenbeil's naming at lock was to bolster the defence and help maintain momentum in attack.

"Awen makes very good decisions in ruck play, he gets in behind the ruck well when things are tough and keeps us moving forward.

"He does a lot of work the average punter might not appreciate. He's the glue to our team."

The selectors have gone for experience over explosive attacking ability in taking David Kidwell in as a starter ahead of Ali Lauitiiti who is on the bench and Frank Pritchard, one of their better attackers but inclined still to miss the odd tackle.

They will again push a left-side attack through David Solomona who has troubled oppositions with his ability to draw tacklers and off-load.

The backline is the one which played Australia at Ericsson Stadium, the front row changed by the injection of Motu Tony.

His play and that of David Faiumu will be critical in the game plan tomorrow, as will containing Lions' hooker Keiron Cunningham.

The Kiwis have not employed much dummy-half running in this series so far, but at Huddersfield, that aspect is sure to be more heavily emphasised.

Tony is an expert, showing class in big games for the Warriors, Kiwis and Hull in the past. Faiumu has a clever step.

Cunningham is perhaps best of the three at making a break or half-break then firing a pass to the right runner. But, pressured, he may throw intercepts like that which benefited Australia last weekend.

Maintaining pressure to grind the Brits down will be critical, because they will be more determined and better-drilled than they have in their first two games. The one-out attack they fell back to against Australia last week will not be repeated.

The Lions have dropped Nick Fozzard and Rob Burrow (who played game one against the Kiwis) and Micky Higham (who played Australia last weekend).

They named 19 players yesterday, with the likelihood their backline will be the same as that which played Australia, Iestyn Harris at five-eighth rather than lock, Kevin Sinfield, Martin Gleeson and Keith Senior the centres, Brian Carney and Leon Pryce the wings and Paul Wellens at fullback.

Their front and second rows are likely to be the same, with Stuart Fielden and Jamie Peacock book-ending Cunningham.

Coach Brian Noble is likely to tinker with his bench when the starting side is named today.

It has been wet in the north of England all week and both teams have had damp runs. Neither has been able to train at the venue.

The Kiwis were to have a walk there yesterday, as McClennan was keen for his players to familiarise themselves with the ground. He took them to the Great Britain-Australia game last weekend partly to show what crowd conditions can be expected.

In game one at Loftus Rd, the stands were full of New Zealanders, but that will not be the case in the north. "I wanted the younger guys in the team in particular to get a feel for how passionate the Great Britain supporters will be."

Aussie Tim Mander is referee for this game. New Zealand's Craig Pascoe runs one touchline and an English ref the other.

Across the Channel, the Australia-France game will be refereed by Ashley Klein, 26, who whistled the Super League grand final. He seems to be favourite to take an Australia-New Zealand final ahead of Steve Ganson, who came Downunder for the early games and struggled to keep up with the play.

The Australians have named Scott Prince at five-eighth and Craig Gower at halfback. If Trent Barrett does not recover from a stress fracture to his left foot, that is likely to be their combination for the title game at Elland Rd.


League: Kiwis raring to go as Jones steps back into the breach
 By Peter Jessup

Stacey Jones has again come to the rescue of the Kiwis, stepping into the halfback role for the game against Great Britain at Huddersfield tomorrow morning.

Jones answered an SOS after Lance Hohaia was sidelined mid-week with ankle ligament trouble.

He arrived in team camp in Manchester yesterday and took part in a training session that coach Brian McClennan labelled the best of the series so far.

"I thought we looked very crisp," he said.

"It's a hardened team now, we're rested after the week off - even though we played England last weekend the preparation was more relaxed - but now you can see the spring in their step.

"Everyone's raring to go."

McClennan expects a much more hardened Great Britain side and welcomes the confidence boost the team will get from Jones' involvement.

"With Lance out it would have made it difficult. I was confident we would have come up with something, but the something we came up with would not be as good as Stacey Jones."

The halfback is unlikely to be available for the final at Elland Rd, Leeds, in a fortnight. His wife Rachelle is due to give birth in Auckland that week.

McClennan was not talking about the final: "We can't win the final unless we make the final - we're just looking at this weekend."

But they can lose by 17 and still make it.

McClennan expects the game to be close and wants the Kiwis to finish strongly.

"We're a hard side to handle in the last 10 minutes. We've proved that in all three games.

"We wear teams down, our guys are hard to tackle, they [Great Britain] couldn't contain our power."

McClennan agreed that Awen Guttenbeil's naming at lock was to bolster the defence and help maintain momentum in attack.

"Awen makes very good decisions in ruck play, he gets in behind the ruck well when things are tough and keeps us moving forward.

"He does a lot of work the average punter might not appreciate. He's the glue to our team."

The selectors have gone for experience over explosive attacking ability in taking David Kidwell in as a starter ahead of Ali Lauitiiti who is on the bench and Frank Pritchard, one of their better attackers but inclined still to miss the odd tackle.

They will again push a left-side attack through David Solomona who has troubled oppositions with his ability to draw tacklers and off-load.

The backline is the one which played Australia at Ericsson Stadium, the front row changed by the injection of Motu Tony.

His play and that of David Faiumu will be critical in the game plan tomorrow, as will containing Lions' hooker Keiron Cunningham.

The Kiwis have not employed much dummy-half running in this series so far, but at Huddersfield, that aspect is sure to be more heavily emphasised.

Tony is an expert, showing class in big games for the Warriors, Kiwis and Hull in the past. Faiumu has a clever step.

Cunningham is perhaps best of the three at making a break or half-break then firing a pass to the right runner. But, pressured, he may throw intercepts like that which benefited Australia last weekend.

Maintaining pressure to grind the Brits down will be critical, because they will be more determined and better-drilled than they have in their first two games. The one-out attack they fell back to against Australia last week will not be repeated.

The Lions have dropped Nick Fozzard and Rob Burrow (who played game one against the Kiwis) and Micky Higham (who played Australia last weekend).

They named 19 players yesterday, with the likelihood their backline will be the same as that which played Australia, Iestyn Harris at five-eighth rather than lock, Kevin Sinfield, Martin Gleeson and Keith Senior the centres, Brian Carney and Leon Pryce the wings and Paul Wellens at fullback.

Their front and second rows are likely to be the same, with Stuart Fielden and Jamie Peacock book-ending Cunningham.

Coach Brian Noble is likely to tinker with his bench when the starting side is named today.

It has been wet in the north of England all week and both teams have had damp runs. Neither has been able to train at the venue.

The Kiwis were to have a walk there yesterday, as McClennan was keen for his players to familiarise themselves with the ground. He took them to the Great Britain-Australia game last weekend partly to show what crowd conditions can be expected.

In game one at Loftus Rd, the stands were full of New Zealanders, but that will not be the case in the north. "I wanted the younger guys in the team in particular to get a feel for how passionate the Great Britain supporters will be."

Aussie Tim Mander is referee for this game. New Zealand's Craig Pascoe runs one touchline and an English ref the other.

Across the Channel, the Australia-France game will be refereed by Ashley Klein, 26, who whistled the Super League grand final. He seems to be favourite to take an Australia-New Zealand final ahead of Steve Ganson, who came Downunder for the early games and struggled to keep up with the play.

The Australians have named Scott Prince at five-eighth and Craig Gower at halfback. If Trent Barrett does not recover from a stress fracture to his left foot, that is likely to be their combination for the title game at Elland Rd.

Tri-Nations - Huddersfield, tomorrow 7.10am

NZ Kiwis: Brent Webb, Jake Webster, Shontayne Hape, Clinton Toopi, Manu Vatuvai, Nigel Vagana, Stacey Jones, Paul Rauhihi, Motu Tony, Ruben Wiki, David Kidwell, David Solomona, Awen Guttenbeil. Interchange: David Faiumu, Roy Asotasi, Louis Anderson, Ali Lauitiiti.

Great Britain Lions: Brian Carney, Keiron Cunningham, Paul Deacon, Gareth Ellis, Stuart Fielden, Lee Gilmour, Martin Gleeson, Iestyn Harris, Richard Horne, Michael Higham, Paul Johnson, Adrian Morley, James Peacock, Leon Pryce, Keith Senior, Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Thackray, Chev Walker, Paul Wellens.