Rugby League: Kiwis buzzing in test lead-up

By Peter Jessup

Kiwi prop Craig Smith rates the Tri-Series opener against Australia as tougher than this year's NRL grand final and, named in an unchanged side for the final tomorrow night, expects another step up in intensity.

"They'll be a lot better side than three weeks ago," he said. "We're not going to do a lot different in our game-plan - why change when it worked last time?

"But we expect everything to move more quickly. They'll come out hard. We just have to do the little things right, the things that count, and it will go all right for us."

The Kiwis' 24-22 opening win and a good 26-4 run against Great Britain had given them confidence in themselves, Smith said.

"There's a very, very good team spirit. You could tell straight away in the first game, everyone was talking to everyone, lots of communication in defence and that's good.

"You can tell when a team's buzzing and this one is."

The team are acutely aware that the New Zealand sporting public are down and out following the All Blacks' World Cup elimination and would love a win.

The Kiwis have the chance to secure a series win over the Kangaroos for the first time since 1952, and if there was any doubt over how far losers go in this town, it was dispelled early yesterday when an All Black advertising billboard across the road from the Kiwis' city hotel came down.

The players were hoping for a good crowd to urge them on, said Kiwi coach Frank Endacott, and he dismissed talk that they would run out of steam as in the first game.

"In that second half I don't think we played bad - they played good. They had all the ball and I thought our defence was great. We'll do things with the ball when we have it too. If the people turn out they'll see some good football."

Endacott believed the change which his opposite, Chris Anderson, made in the centres by recalling Darren Smith was a one-off move to win this game rather than a World Cup choice.

"I thought they'd stick with Russell Richardson and I don't know what Ryan Girdler did wrong," he said.

Flying Kangaroo wing Wendell Sailor, who will play down the left side of the field outside Smith, was sure they would revive their combination after he played with two other centre partners in Richardson and Shaun Timmins in this series.

Sailor said being one down was a good position for Australia to be in. "We let them get a roll on last time and once they got a sniff we couldn't get back into that first half. We know we have to start better," he said.

He rated the All Black loss the worst thing that had happened to the Australians this week. "The Kiwis know they have to stand up. They'll be fired up for it."

The Kangaroos were not far off their best football in the second half against Great Britain and that was the form they wanted to emulate tomorrow, Sailor said.

"It's about who wants it most and for our guys it's about how much you want to go to the World Cup. I know I do. There's nothing between the sides - I'm going to really enjoy this."

Meanwhile, Great Britain coach Andy Goodway has welcomed Paul Anderson back into his front row for the curtainraiser against the Aotearoa Maori side after recovery from injury, so Barrie McDermott is relegated to the bench.

Chris Joynt joined him in the interchange, and his replacement in the starting XIII is Paul Sculthorpe.

Great Britain: Kris Radlinski, Jason Robinson, Francis Cummins, Keith Senior, Anthony Sullivan, Sean Long, Tony Sheridan, Andy Farrell (capt), Paul Sculthorpe, Adrian Morley, Dale Laughton, James Lowes, Paul Anderson. Interchange: Stuart Fielden, Barrie McDermott, Mike Foreshaw, Andy Hay, Chris Joynt.