Entry 10. 12th November 2010
Four weeks of tough Rugby League action comes to a close in Brisbane tomorrow when the Four Nations final will be played at Suncorp Stadium.
It would be fair to say that Australia owe New Zealand after the Kiwis won the 2008 World Cup with a superb performance in the final. I get the feeling that the Australians have been simmering about that for two years and they will be keen to back up last year's 46-16 Elland Road defeat of England and win their second Four Nations crown on the bounce.
There is no doubting that the Aussies will be confident as well, afterall they did win at Eden Park last week to send the majority of the 44,000 crowd home very unhappy.
For Australia there is no Petero Civoniceva with some speculation suggesting that the big man will not get the opportunity to pull on a Green and Gold jumper again however we must remember the likes of Stephen Price and Reuben Wiki who both carried on pulling on the international uniform.
Billy Slater, Willie Tonga, Luke Lewis and Darren Lockyer all return to the Kangaroos line up with Nate Miles on the bench.
Such is the changing culture of the Australian side that only four of the seventeen played in the 2008 World Cup final while in comparison, New Zealand still call on ten of their number from that fateful day.
Another old face to return for Australia is Darren Lockyer and the veteran halfback still holds the key in my view. This will be his 54th test and what is more he reclaims the captain's armband.
The Australian team annouced is:
Billy Slater
Brett Morris
Brent Tate
Willie Tonga
Lote Tuqiri
D. Lockyer (c)
Cooper Cronk
Matthew Scott
Cameron Smith
David Shillington
Luke Lewis
Sam Thaiday
Paul Gallen
While the bench is expected to see Myles, Gidley, Learoyd-Lars and Watmough.
In comparison, the Kiwis still look strong but they will be hoping to get Marshall as involved as possible. I also think Lance Hohaia is a useful player and he always plays well, particularly against England. Gregg Eastwood has put behind him some patchy form for Leeds and has been stepped up the the front row while Thomas Leuluai continues ahead of Isaac Luke at hooker. With no Frank Pritchard due to injury, Kiwi's boss Stephen Kearney has named another big bench.
Here is the NZ squad.
Lance Hohaia
J. Nightingale
S. Kenny-Dowall
Junior Sa'u
Sam Perrett
Benji Marshall (c)
Nathan Fien
Greg Eastwood
Thomas Leuluai
Adam Blair
Bronson Harrison
Simon Mannering
Jeremy Smith
Interchange (from): Issac Luke, Ben Matulino, Frank-Paul Nuuausala, Sam McKendry, Sika Manu, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Lewis Brown
I think we are in for a cracker - let's just hope it's better than last week, and a different result!
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