Kangaroo selection might help Kiwis

Press, 6 July 1983, Page 32

Kangaroo selection might help Kiwis

By

JOHN COFFEY

The New Zealand rugby league squad, at present in Brisbane preparing for the second test next Saturday evening, is likely to benefit on two counts from the announcement of the Australian team. The inclusion of six resident Queenslanders, and three others who are now with Sydney clubs, will ensure a bumper, if parochial, crowd at Lang Park, and New Zealand will share in the financial rewards. More pertinent to the outcome of the test, the New Zealanders will be lining up against three opponents unaccustomed to the pressure of test football, all of whom are familiar to the formerly Brisbane-based Kiwi coach, Graham Lowe. It might take the fullback, Colin Scott, the centre, Gene Miles, and the prop, Brad Tessman, a little time to come to terms with their first appearance in an Australian jersey at full international level.

Miles is likely to be the least affected by the occasion. He was a member of the unbeaten Kangaroo team in Britain and France

last year, although not able to split the established test combination of Steve Rogers and Mai Meninga. Now that Rogers has been ruled out because of a recurring injury in his left knee, Miles has his chance to partner Meninga, as he did so effectively during the recent State of Origin series against New South Wales. If anything, Australia will present an even more physically intimidating back formation than it did at Auckland last month. Miles is strong enough to play some of his club football as a second-row forward, without denting the pace developed as a youngster in Townsville.

Scott also hails from Townsville and was a teammate of Miles when Wyn-num-Manly won the Brisbane . championship last season. A gifted attacker and strong defender, he has had five years of inter-state rugby league and replaces Greg Brentnail, who has not recovered from the rib injury which caused his retirement in the first test.

Injuries to Geoff Gerard and Paul McCabe led to the alterations to the Kangaroo pack, although Queensland’s 43-22 drubbing of New South Wales in the deciding interstate game would inevitably have forced a larger northern representation. Tessman joins Dave Brown and Max Krilich in the Kangaroo front-row. The return of Ray Price at loose forward, after he missed the Auckland test because of injury, would have been inevitable even had McCabe been fit. Price and Krilich, who is to retire from international football after the test, are by far the most seasoned members of the pack.' Both reserves, Steve Ella and Ray Brown, were in the 1982 Kangaroos. Ella is a gifted utility back who scored four tries against Wales and 22 tries in just 12 appearances in Britain and France, while Brown has considerable experience in the second-row and as Krilich’s hooker understudy with Manly-Warringah.