Rugby League: Hard man ready for bash-a-thon

By PETER JESSUP in Sydney

Kangaroos coach Chris Anderson probably has prop Shane Webcke in mind when he talks of tomorrow's test with New Zealand being a "bash-a-thon".

The Broncos' frontrower would have been one of the first Kangaroos named, as he has been since he made the national side in 1998. and have a strength and power advantage over the newcomers.

He started at the Broncos in 1994 after being spotted as a 16-year-old playing in an under-18 tournament.

Now 183cm and 112kg, Webcke played league from age five, despite growing up in Leyburn, a town of 300 70km west of Toowoomba, the second son of Tom and Vicki.

He had his first beer at the Royal Hotel there. Now he owns it, along with a 1200ha cattle-grazing property nearby where he spends all the time a pro football career allows.

He's not fond of Brisbane, or any city. A man's man is a hard worker and you find them in the bush, he believes.

Webcke doesn't have his own player manager. He negotiates his own contracts in the belief that he needs to learn the business side of life. He knows he's probably sold himself short at times, but he wants to be his own man.

He's also taken less than he could have earned elsewhere - he might have picked up another A$100,000 every year for the past five - by staying loyal. He likes being in a winning team.

Webcke had a horror start with the Broncos, breaking an ankle and suffering glandular fever in his first year.

His father, Tom, was killed in a work accident. Still a teenager, it was a bewildering time, but he learned from it. He trained harder.

By mid-1995 he had earned a top-grade spot and by season's end, at 21, he was a regular in a position where the average age hovers around 28 - his age today.

He first made the Queensland State of Origin side in 1998 and is the only player to have started in all 18 Origins since.

He needs no interstate or transtasman rivalry to fire him: "I play well because I have a lot of pride and self-respect."

At Kangaroos training this week, Chris Anderson would regularly call private conflabs with some of his veteran players - the playmaker, Andrew Johns, big runner Gorden Tallis and "Webby", his main man when it comes to go-forward.

Webcke's squat build aids his task. He's a barrel-chest built on big stumps. A low centre of gravity makes him hard to knock over.

His job on Friday night will be to make the initial metres; to force the Kiwi players into retreat every one of the 30 or so times he carries the ball.

It'll take more than one man to stop him every time, sometimes three or four. That and the constant advance-and-retreat of the 10 metres forced by a quick play-the-ball saps energy. It gives the Johns of the world time and space to work their magic.

Webcke knows exactly what's expected in the test: he's played seven of his nine internationals against New Zealand. Injury ruled him out of the last Kangaroo tour and made getting into the 2003 squad a huge incentive for him.

Told that Kiwi captain Ruben Wiki had agreed with Anderson's bash-a-thon comment, that the Kiwis were going to bash Australia, he said: "I just love hearing that, it's wonderful.

"It's always a big part of their game - it's their style of football."

He was ready for a torrid opening session. But he disputed the suggestion it would continue through the game.

Players couldn't maintain the intensity, the speed of play would overtake their desire to bash the opposition and the ability to carry that out.

"It's all very well when people are fresh, it's quite easy to do that sort of thing," he said of hurting gang-tackles.

"But at the pace the game is played, it soon settles down. Fitness-wise, blokes are too tired to worry about intimidating and trying to bash in every tackle."

Webcke is clear his role on Friday is no different to the usual.

"I get the ball and I run it at the defence - that's what I do, mate.

"If we've got the ball, make a hit-up. If they've got the ball, make a tackle. Don't stop."

He's no wordsmith off the field, no Flash Harry on it. But have no doubt hat Webcke's input will as always have a marked influence on the outcome tomorrow night.