TO: NZRL Staff, Districts and Affiliates and Board FROM: Cushla Dawson DATE: 12 October 2009 RE: Media Summary Tuesday 06 September to Monday 12 October 2009 Australia wary of New Zealand ambush ahead of Four Nations: Still mentally scarred by 2008's shock World Cup defeat, Australia will head to the Four Nations fearing another New Zealand ambush in London. Australia will face the Kiwis at Twickenham's Stoop Stadium, with captain Darren Lockyer declaring the Kangaroos ready to re-establish themselves as rugby league's premier nation. Roos seek revenge over New Zealand in rugby league clash: AUSTRALIA cannot regain rugby league's World Cup until the next tournament in 2013, but in the meantime they're determined to show title holders New Zealand who really is No. 1. The Kangaroos' quest for trans-Tasman supremacy began with a 38-10 win over the Kiwis in Brisbane on May 8 and will continue in England in the upcoming Four Nations tournament. Parramatta Eels' prop Fuifui Moimoi will be rested ahead of the Four-Nations because of his rib and knee injuries: Kiwis' coach Stephen Kearney has decided to rest Parramatta Eels' prop Fuifui Moimoi ahead of the Four-Nations. Moimoi carried knee and rib injuries through the NRL playoffs and has not been selected in the Kiwis' side for Wednesday night's one-off test against Tonga in Rotorua. Kearney says apart from Moimoi's absence, he has picked a full-strength side. He says they want to get this campaign off to the right start and Tonga will pick a strong side. There are four debutantes in the 17 - Junior Sau, Bryson Goodwin, Frank-Paul Nuuausala and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. (Source: NZ City 11 October 2009) Four debutants for Kiwis in Tonga Test: Four of the Kiwis' seven newcomers will make their international debuts in Wednesday night's one-off Test against Tonga at the Rotorua International Stadium. Coach Stephen Kearney has named Newcastle centre Junior Sau, Bulldogs winger Bryson Goodwin and Sydney Roosters prop Frank-Paul Nuuausala in the starting line-up while Rotorua-born Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is included on the interchange bench. Warriors reject who battled back: Frank-Paul Nuuausala remembers it well. It was the end of 2005 and he was called into Ivan Cleary's office. He was an 18-year-old from the mean streets of Mangere and Otara but had been on the Warriors books since he was 14. He had often been described as the next Ali Lauitiiti so a life as a successful first-grader, he assumed, was certain. Cleary didn't think so. He was taking over as Warriors coach in 2006 and he needed to make some decisions. This one wasn't difficult. In the name of the father: Bryson Goodwin has had something of a split personality since he was a youngster. One side of him was rooting for Australia, the country of his birth and the nation his famous father 'Lord' Ted played four tests for in the early 1970s. The other was supporting New Zealand, his grandmother's country and the nation he will make his international debut for in the coming days. "I used to go for whoever was winning when I was a kid," Goodwin says with a laugh. The Nu-look Kiwi: New Kiwi Frank-Paul Nuuausala might be affectionately known by his Roosters team-mates as "Frank-Paul The Wrecking Ball" but when he turned up to start training late last year during the pre-season, "Frank the Tank" might have been a more appropriate moniker. At the ripe old age of 21, the talented young prop from south Auckland, who joined the Roosters from the Warriors' development squad as an 18-year-old, returned to work from holiday complete with a gigantic spare tyre around his waist. NZ gets cash pledge despite venue: Any chance of the annual Anzac test being played in New Zealand this decade have been scotched by NZRL chief executive Jim Doyle, with the league ready to sign off on plans to take the 2010 test to Olympic Park in Melbourne for the first time. Doyle told the Star- Times it was now 90% certain the annual test would move to Melbourne, instead of Brisbane, where the game has been held in four of the past five seasons. Pressure on for Tonga tickets: When team manager Gordon Gibbons doles out the standard allocation of four complimentary tickets to each Kiwi player before Wednesday night's test with Tonga, two will begin mercilessly pursuing their team-mates to hand over their spare passes. Players such as Nathan Fien, whose family are in Australia, will be the first targets for debutants Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Frank-Paul Nuuausala. Kiwis tour is no holiday in the sun: With the NRL done and dusted, it's now time to focus on the Four Nations tournament in England and France. With seven rookie Kiwis on board, it is a case of in at the deep end and let the hard work begin. After months of planning, the Four Nations is almost upon us. Most of the boys assembled in camp on Tuesday night in Auckland with those involved in last week's NRL Grand Final arriving last night. Kiwis the winners as backrower skips war zone: The Danger money would have been a lot more: Jared Waerea-Hargreaves' rugby union contract was worth just $1500 when he turned down his father's offer to drive a forklift truck in a war zone. Wayne Hargreaves has been a water purification engineer in the US military for the past seven years, totting up what his son thinks is "about eight" wars, including Cambodia (where he was kidnapped by guerrillas), Afghanistan, Somalia, Kosovo and Iraq, from where one phone call home was cut short. Kearney's Kiwis focus: New Zealand's World Cup-winning coach Stephen Kearney is adamant he will only take on a club coaching role when the time is right for him. The 37-year-old former Kiwi captain masterminded his country's stunning 34-20 win over Australia in last November's final despite his only experience of coaching at club level coming from his work as an assistant to Craig Bellamy with NRL champions Melbourne Storm. Core missing but Kiwis squad still looks good: It wasn't that many moons ago that the Kiwis couldn't have coped if up to 10 of their best players were not available. Take out Roy Asotasi (captain and NZRL Player of the Year 2007), Manu Vatuvei (2008 International Winger of the year), Jeremy Smith (NZRL Player of 2008), Simon Mannering (Warriors Player of the Year 2008), Taniela Tuiaki (2009 Dally M Winger of the year and the NRL's leading tryscorer until he broke his ankle), Sam Rapira (Warriors' best forward in 2009), Jerome Ropati, Sika Manu, Zeb Taia and Setaimata Sa and you remove the core of a very good side. It is the core of the World Cup- winning side. It's just like riding a bike...: It might be 12 months since he last ran a ball up in anger but Ruben Wiki didn't look out of place at Mt Smart Stadium yesterday. The 36-year-old Wiki came out of retirement to play for Toa Samoan Domestic, a side representing his mother's homeland. Proceeds from the match went to the Samoan tsunami disaster relief effort. Wiki retired from professional rugby league last year, having played 315 NRL games and a world record 55 tests for the Kiwis. But even that vast experience couldn't save his side from a heavy 62-14 defeat against a New Zealand Bartercard Premiership Selection. The Bartercard team comprised 16 players from the Canterbury and Auckland sides which last weekend contested the Bartercard Premiership final. Source: Herald on Sunday 11 October 2009 Wiki’s return not enough for Samoans: A year after retiring, rugby league legend and Ruben Wiki pulled the boots back on for a tsunami fundraiser. The 36-year-old was the headline act for a Samoan Residents side that took on a Bartercard Premiership Selection at Auckland's Mt Smart, in a fundraiser for victims of the Samoan tsunami. The ex-Warrior retained his big hitting ability but despite his best efforts, the New Zealand side won 52- 14 over Toa Samoa. The game, and Mad Butcher sausage sizzle, raised over $10,000 for the relief efforts. Source: TVNZ 10 October 2009 Thousands rally for tsunami benefit match: As a shipload of aid and able bodies steamed towards Tonga and Samoa on Saturday, others have spent the day in New Zealand passing the bucket around for more donations. There were warm Pacific greetings for thousands turning up to Mount Smart for a Rugby League benefit match. Oz foray couldn't take the Kiwi out of Foran: People who emigrate to new countries tend to go one of two ways; some fully assimilate and embrace their new land, others never really turn their eyes away from the mother country. Kieran Foran, the Manly and now Kiwis five-eighth, is firmly in the latter group. Foran's family moved to Australia when he was 9. Australia became the place where he lived, but it never became home. In many ways he did assimilate. He went to school, played footie for his local club Asquith Magpies and even represented Australia at schoolboy level. Support from all quarters for NZRL's benefit match for tsunami disaster relief fund: Entertainers, celebrities, the police and many others are turning out in force to back efforts to raise funds for the Samoan tsunami disaster relief effort in the New Zealand Rugby League's benefit match at Mount Smart Stadium tomorrow (Saturday).