KEY POINTS:
Fifteen months of representative heartache will come to an end for Australian skipper Darren Lockyer tomorrow night when he leads the Kangarooss into their opening World Cup match against a fired-up New Zealand team hellbent on revenge.
The Sydney Football Stadium clash, which marks the official opening of
the 10-team tournament, will be Lockyer's first in a rep jumper of any description since July last year when he led Queensland to an 18-4 loss to NSW in an Origin dead rubber.
A debilitating knee injury, which at one stage appeared career-threatening, has kept Lockyer away from the representative arena since, the Kangaroos pivot today admitting the nerves ahead of his return to the Australian jumper were already taking effect.
"There's a feeling of excitement about the tournament, I guess there is nerves," Lockyer said before Australia's final training session.
"The nerves will probably kick in (more so) tomorrow, it is a pretty big game, it's the opening ceremony and we're playing a Test against New Zealand.
"There's always nerves before any big game but I suppose tomorrow night's a pretty special night for myself and the rest of the team."
What's made Lockyer's representative exile even harder to take is the fact the matches he's missed haven't been your average run of the mill rep games.
First there was the end of season Test in Wellington last year when the Kangaroos trounced the Kiwis by a record margin, while Lockyer was also forced to bypass an invitation to play with the All Golds in which he was set to reprise the role of Dally Messenger late last year.
Lockyer also watched on as the Kangaroos celebrated the centenary of the game with another win over New Zealand in May while he also sat out all three matches of this year's Origin series as he continued to be plagued by his surgically repaired knee.
Now back at the helm, Lockyer admits he and his teammates have had to do a lot of work to try and fit the 31-year-old back into the line-up.
"Cohesion's been a big theme of the week, a lot of guys haven't played six, seven weeks, some only a couple," he said.
"Particularly in the key positions, the new forwards getting to know Cam Smith's game and myself working with Billy (fullback Billy Slater), even though we've played at Queensland together I haven't played a lot of football with him lately."
New Zealand skipper Nathan Cayless laughed off suggestions the Kangaroos could find themselves out of sync tomorrow night.
"Their halves and hooker all play together, and their fullback - they're four main positions and they all play together at State of Origin time and they've been playing together for a number of years," Cayless said.
"I think they're trying to throw a bit of a smokey there."
There were suggestions today that Anthony Tupou or Brent Kite could be brought into the Australian starting line-up to add a bit more experience to the pack for the early exchanges, but Kiwi coach Stephen Kearney said he hadn't given much thought to how the Kangaroos would run out.
One anticipated move is the switching of Israel Folau and Brent Tate in defence on Australia's right edge, the much bigger Folau to move out to the flank where he will mark up on giant New Zealand winger Manu Vatuvei.
Australia go into the game and the tournament as raging hot favourites to emerge winners, the Kangaroos having not lost a Test to New Zealand since 2005.
But Lockyer revealed the heavy 24-0 loss in that Tri-Nations final had played a large part in coach Ricky Stuart's build-up.
"In 05 it was a pretty lopsided final to New Zealand, Ricky's touched on that over the last couple of years that even though we're the No.1, you only have to have an off day and things can turn quite easily," Lockyer said.
- AAP
