Moimoi gets breakthrough despite Kiwis' failure

Fuifui Moimoi was this week named the rugby league world's best frontrower - then declared that he can still get better.

Finally getting used to the attention, the once-shy prop fronted at a formal awards dinner to collect his title after proving himself as an international player during an otherwise-disappointing Four Nations tour.

Moimoi endured an awful 2007 tour to England and was dropped from the Kiwis' successful World Cup team.

But the transformation of the 30-year-old prop is now complete after skipper Benji Marshall declared him one of the Kiwis' hardest trainers: not bad for a bloke who once told South Sydney coach Paul Langmack that if he only played for ten minutes, he only trained for ten.

''He's playing way more game-time than he ever has _ when the coaches took him off on the weekend [against England] he was saying he wanted to stay on,'' says Marshall. ''I think it is a fit Fui, for a change. I think in the past, he has struggled a bit fitness-wise. But when a player with the speed he has in his legs is at peak fitness, he's hard to stop.''

Moimoi may be the oldest in this tour party, but he's still relatively inexperienced at the top level, having debuted for the Eels in 2003.

''You learn from different coaches and I think this is the first time he has been involved with Steve [Kearney], so he will have learned a lot,'' says Marshall.

''He was awesome on this tour. He doesn't say the most, that's just Fui, and what he does say, he says through his actions on the field and at training. But at training, he leads in his position all the time.''

Kearney too said Moimoi was a changed man.

''From 2007,to what he has contributed on this trip, has been a fabulous development for him,'' he said.

The big man himself, whose plans for the next six weeks are to visit his children in Auckland and take his mum home to Tonga for Christmas, was typically reticent, but offered: ''I've worked pretty hard so hopefully I get another chance next year. I feel I will play better [after this experience].

''But there are a few young players such as Frank Paul Nuuausala that stepped up _ he was really good _ so I am lucky if I make the squad again. I've just enjoyed my time.''

It was a quiet night for big Fui: the New Zealand delegation slipped away during the desert course, and missed the controversy of the evening, an after-dinner incident involving the France coach Bobbie Goulding which is now under investigation by the Rugby League International Federation.

Goulding, who appeared heavily intoxicated, abused several senior officials and journalists in the bar after the formal dinner at a city casino, and had to be restrained by the French captain, Olivier Elima, and Goulding's own 'minder' after lunging unprovoked at an Australian journalist.

Goulding was also seen loudly abusing and roughhousing senior officials and journalists.

Several senior British RFL employees witnessed the scenes, and last night (UK time) an RFL spokesman confirmed an investigation had begun into Goulding's behaviour.

The former Great Britain halfback was a controversial choice to succeed John Monie after last year's world cup, and has a three-year contract to coach the Chanticleers.

He had a chequered disciplinary record in his long playing career, including an incident where police became involved at an Auckland fast food restaurant on the 1993 Lions tour.

- © Fairfax NZ News