By JAMIE TROUGHTON
BAY of Plenty might still get a World Cup representative this year - though only if player identification doesn't extend to fingerprinting.
Bay of Plenty Emerging Players first-five Ata Malifa jets out to France this week to watch his identical twin brother Nese play for the United States.
It caps
a surreal week for the Malifa clan after Ata and older brother Angelo opposed each other on Saturday and both siblings sat down to watch Nese's US Eagles team push England to 28-10 in their cup opener.
"I'm flying out on Thursday and it's going to be pretty exciting - I might end up playing half the tournament!" Te Puna's Malifa said after the Emerging Players beat the Auckland Divisional side 28-16. "I'll just try and sneak on and pretend I'm Nese - even Mum and Dad have trouble telling us apart, so it could be pretty difficult for the officials."
The twins turn 22 today and qualify for the United States as they were born in American Samoa. They've both played tennis and soccer for American Samoa, and both intended moving down to Tauranga from Auckland last year.
Only Ata made it, however - Auckland enticed Nese to stay, and several months later he moved to the US when the World Cup opportunity loomed.
He's since played three tests for the Peter Thorburn-coached Eagles and was on the bench against England. He's capable of playing first and second-five, centre and fullback.
Meanwhile, Ata was surprised to face Angelo on Saturday in front of their father Ueligitone who'd come down from Auckland to watch.
"I didn't expect him to be playing at first-five but Dad said later that he'd switched from fullback this year.
"Dad was also telling us off for trying to high-tackle each other - but there's no such thing as brothers on the field!"
Malifa's Bay future is up in the air - he doesn't know if he'll return after his month-long World Cup sojourn and may look at a similar path to his brother.
