Band of brothers turn Tasman tide

BY STEVE KILGALLON IN LEEDS

CLAD in green and gold, Benji Marshall stood at North Harbour Stadium before kickoff of the first test between the Australian Schoolboys and the Junior Kiwis and, as the haka began, he made his decision.

Marshall was playing for the Australians because, well, he was at school on the Gold Coast and because he figured New Zealand had no idea who he was.

"It was a life-changing experience," Marshall said. "That's when I realised I wanted to be a Kiwi, I had no doubt that I wanted to play for New Zealand.

"It was an eye-opening experience that made me realise I wanted to be standing on the other side."

Four of the Junior Kiwis team that day, Bronson Harrison, Iosia Soliola, Frank-Paul Nuuausala and Adam Blair, are in this year's New Zealand Four Nations squad.

More intriguingly, alongside Marshall in the Australian team were Sam Perrett and Ben Roberts, both since capped by New Zealand, and Shane Eastwood, the brother of Kiwi lock Greg Eastwood.

It's a neat illustration of the scramble for talent across the Tasman.

"Look at the under-20s," argues Nathan Fien, who knows a bit about national allegiance.

"There are so many Polynesian boys coming through that are eligible for New Zealand and they are the stars of that competition, so there could be a time in the next few years that the ascendancy could start to turn."

But those rising Polynesian stars have a complex heritage.

There is a substantial New Zealand-flavoured community in the league heartland of west Sydney – which has already spawned Krisnan Inu and Frank Pritchard – producing young footballers who find they have a three-way split of loyalties – to Australia, the land where they have learned their football, to New Zealand, the land their families have left, and often, to Samoa, Tonga or the Cook Islands, the land of their families' cultural heritage.

Marshall and Fien both believe that Australia are quick to exploit that uncertainty, moving quickly on young players and feeding them into their representative system.

That's why Kiwi coach Stephen Kearney would like to see the introduction of a national under-20 team, the rebirth of the New Zealand A team, and development camps for the best New Zealand players on the books of Sydney NRL clubs.

"If you're an up-and-coming young talent in Australia and they think they have harnessed that talent, there is a bit of pressure on you to play for Australia," Marshall said.

"There is a temptation to play State of Origin, and I think some people, Karmichael [Hunt] for example, have maybe been talked into changing their mind to play State of Origin, instead of for their country."

The Auckland-born Hunt didn't move to Queensland until he was 13 but rejected New Zealand's approaches on at least two occasions because he wanted to play State of Origin for Queensland.

The latest young Kiwi to follow suit is Brisbane backrow Ben Te'o, who didn't leave Auckland until he was 16 but is determined to play for the Maroons.

"I don't want to be going around persuading guys to play for the Kiwis," says coach Kearney. "I'm not going to go to every brown kid in the comp and say `are you a Kiwi, do you want to play for us?"'

Kearney says he'd rather offer them something to play for – if not a New Zealand shirt, then an under-20s or a New Zealand A place.

He's sanguine about how players have approached the question of their nationality.

Today's debutant, Manly's Kieran Foran, immediately told him he was a Kiwi and had always wanted to play for the Kiwis despite moving to Sydney at an early age. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, he said, was "quite calculated" and asked for time to consult his parents. Earlier this year, Waerea-Hargreaves admitted he wasn't sure who he'd play for, saying: "I'd definitely like to play for New Zealand but at the same time I think if I wasn't in Australia I wouldn't be in this situation. I feel I've got to pay my respects to Australia as well."

Wing Bryson Goodwin was even more frank, telling the Daily Telegraph he would've liked to play for Australia but didn't think he would be picked.

With league's residency rules, which allow players to represent a country once they have lived there for three years, every player bar four in this side could theoretically represent Australia.

In the 24-man squad, there are three players who qualify through the heritage rules (you may represent a country if you had a parent or grandparent born there) and two, Australia-born Fien and Tongan-born Fuifui Moimoi, through residency.

Kearney says every player has a different reason for choosing the Kiwis. Fien says simply: "I like being the underdog."

But once they have been enticed into the camp, the Kiwis pride themselves on making players desperate to keep coming back.

"Being a part of this Kiwi family is a great experience," Marshall said.

"Nothing against other teams but the bond in our team is just so strong and when you see the boys, you can see there is a brotherhood," centre Krisnan Inu said.

Most players will say the same thing – everyone is treated equally, there is a focus on shared heritage and a pyschological appeal to "brotherhood" and "family".

"The experience that guys who come into the Kiwi camp have is that it is an environment they want to be a part of again and again," Kearney said.

- © Fairfax NZ News