Rugby League: Kiwi game plan up in air

By Peter Jessup

SYDNEY - The Kiwis rugby league team could have only a play at training yesterday, with playmakers Robbie and Henry Paul still on the plane from England and captain Quentin Pongia unable to work.

Pongia's place in the Anzac test on Friday becomes more critical after the loss of Craig Smith with a medial ligament tear two minutes from the end of St George/Illawarra's game against Canberra on Sunday.

Jason Lowrie comes into the squad as replacement for Smith after a good game in Balmain's defeat of Manly. Terry Hermansson must have played his way out during the Warriors pointless run against North Queensland after being described by coach Frank Endacott last week as unlucky to have missed selection.

The medical team worked on Pongia's rib cartilage problem yesterday while most of the rest had a light run at the Parramatta ground.

Also on the sideline was Penrith's Tony Puletua, with an ankle strain sustained the week before last. Pongia's chances were still described as 50/50, and though he was desperate to play, there were better odds on Puletua.

"There's no sense in trying to get to work on a game plan when we're missing two key components [the Pauls] and we're not sure who's playing and who's not," Endacott said at Parramatta.

"I'll have a better idea what I'm doing on Tuesday. At the moment it's wait and see."

The Australians, meanwhile, assembled at the Coogee Bay Hotel and ran at a local football field after all passed the fitness test.

Focus for them was deflecting the ruckus caused by the selection of Brad Fittler ahead of Laurie Daley as captain.

The 10-man Australian Rugby League board votes on the captaincy after a selection panel of five including the coach have chosen the team.

Queensland members apparently wanted to retain Allan Langer, who was captain for the two October tests, and when they realised they could not, took their four votes to Fittler in order to turn out Daley.

Reasoning was that Fittler, at 27, is a better prospect for the future but there is also animosity towards Daley because he was Super League's Australian skipper and because some feel he should have ruled himself out of last year's Anzac test, lost at Albany, instead of playing while carrying a leg injury.

The pair declared support for each other yesterday as the team presented a united front, Langer not mentioned.

More than 50,000 tickets have been sold for the test at the Olympic venue, Stadium Australia, but that's less than half capacity.