• Howick and Botany Times
KIWIS rugby league coach Steve Kearney has tough forwards for his Four Nations campaign in the northern hemisphere, but a backline lagging far behind the Kangaroos dazzling brilliance.
However, the same facts carried little weight when the Kiwis defied the odds to win the World Cup final against the Australians on their own doorstep last year. But the difference then was Kearney had Broncos legend Wayne Bennett as his right hand man in inspiring the Kiwis self-belief.Now they need to do it without Bennett’s magic touch.
In explosive Fuifui Moimoi, Adam Blair, Greg Eastwood and Frank Pritchard, they have four juggernaut hit men more than capable of matching the mongrel of the Kangaroos pack.
On the evidence of his NRL final fireworks for Parramatta Eels against the champion Melbourne Storm, Moimoi looks destined to become one of the great all-round props with his frightening power on the charge and in the tackle.
But for him, the Storm would have cruised to their 23-16 championship win instead of requiring a late Greg Inglis try and field goal to clinch it.
The next best forward on the field was the Storm’s versatile Blair who, like the Canterbury Bulldogs’ Eastwood, is a big fast man equally at home playing prop or second row.
Throw raw-boned Pritchard, lively Bronson Harrison and snappy hooker Isaac Luke into the mix and this could develop into one of the best Kiwi packs since the likes of Kevin Tamati, Kurt Sorensen, Mark Graham and Hugh McGahan ruled the roost for a while in the 1980s.
Unfortunately, beyond the mercurial wizardry of skipper Benji Marshall, our relatively raw backs can’t compete with the overall playmaking skills and pace of Jonathan Thurston, Darren Lockyer, Inglis, Jarrod Hayne and Billy Slater.
While they’re a work in progress, they can get better at denying the classy Aussies space with an irritating in-your-face defence that constantly hustles and bustles them.
Unless they do, they will be spending too many humiliating moments behind their own posts watching the Australians converting tries.
Meanwhile, they could take some hope from the Black Caps cricketers feat in defying the odds before making the ICC Champions Trophy finals against all odds in South Africa.
No one would have thought it after losing their opener against the hosts. But wins against Sri Lanka, England and Pakistan carried them all the way through to a final against an Australian team that once again proved their nemesis.
It didn’t help that Jesse Ryder should withdraw after a bright start with a groin problem, and that an injury should rob captain Daniel Vettori of his start in the final following his heroics with bat and ball along the way.
Especially pleasing was the way he and Grant Elliott batted so intelligently in their run chase against the heavily favoured but ultimately disheartened Pakistanis.
Martin Guptill is another realising his huge potential, although it’s a pity impatience continues to impede the dashing Brendan McCullum and Ross Taylor from achieving theirs.
The Howick Pakuranga Cricket Club can also take pride that Kyle Mills should surge to the forefront of international ODI bowling figures in the shortened version of the game.
Sure, he’s had to take a few bumps and bruises along the way. But as a true grit fighter who bounces back for more, he deserves his share of the rewards when they do fall his way.
