KEY POINTS:
The Rugby League International Federation holds the key to whether Brent Webb and Thomas Leuluai will play for the Kiwis next Friday.
The jockeying around the issue of player availability continued yesterday as Leeds chairman Gary Hetherington suggested he would let Webb fly to Sydney for the test against the Kangaroos if instructed to do so by the England Rugby Football League.
RLIF chairman, World Cup chief executive and Sydney lawyer Colin Love indicated he would reinforce the international rules to the ERL and English clubs once he had formal notification of a problem.
That may come early today when the NZRL gets the ERL response.
The NZRL was yesterday "working on the basis we're getting the players" and had booked air tickets to bring Webb to Sydney by Monday following Leeds' game against Bradford on Saturday and Leuluai by Tuesday after Wigan plays St Helens.
"If we were to rigidly apply the constitution [of the RLIF] we could prevent him [Leuluai] playing in that game because it falls within the five-day window in which players must be available for their country," said NZRL manager Peter Cordtz.
"We've made it clear to them we won't do that, we know he's an important part of the mix at Wigan."
They hoped for similar consideration despite Leuluai missing the Wigan-Whitehaven Challenge Cup game the weekend of the test.
ERL chief executive Nigel Wood said the timing of the Anzac test was poor.
"If international competition is to continue to be regarded as the pinnacle of the sport, such contests should not ask players to play when they can only arrive a very short time before the match.
"We clearly understand the legitimate concerns of our clubs when travel between hemispheres places an unreasonable demand on players."
The test is timed against the Millennium Magic promotion in Super League and the Challenge Cup fifth round.
"We have made clear representations to the New Zealand Rugby League in relation to these issues," Wood said.
"The RFL is of the view that there is an established and agreed protocol in international, inter-hemisphere rugby league that teams are only asked to play with a minimum of a week's rest after travel and therefore we believe the same conditions should apply to individual players."
Wood said the ERFL fully supported the principle that internationals should take priority over domestic games.
Cordtz said the other side to the argument was that New Zealand and other countries needed to put out their best team.
"And we wouldn't have picked these guys if they didn't want to play. Stephen Kearney [coach] has been in touch with them both."
The NZRL hoped Australia would back them on this issue, their motivation wanting a good crowd in Sydney and also a return on the gate advance given the NZRL to help them out of financial difficulty.
