League: Fight looming over Kiwis pair

By PETER JESSUP


A row is about to erupt over the availability of Penrith's Kiwis player Tony Puletua for the Tri-Nations games in England.

And his second-row partner Joe Galuvao is likely to be ruled out as the club demands they have surgery in Sydney.

Puletua has been playing with a bad ankle for nearly three months and Galuvao has a bad ankle and a shoulder problem.

The pair are in no doubt for the test at Albany on Saturday, but their case may become a study in the demands placed on footballers and the demands of their clubs as the push continues for a strengthening of the international game.

Another Tri-Nations series is scheduled for 2006 and a further attempt at a World Cup is planned for 2008.

Both will be seriously undermined if Australian and English clubs get a call on culling players from tour parties so they can have off-season surgery to ready them for another club year.

Puletua wants to travel, as does Galuvao, but the latter is more likely to accept the medical assessment and pull out.

The New Zealand Rugby League has asked for a second opinion on both players.

The Kiwis' medic, Dr Chris Hanna, agreed that Galuvao needed to be released for the operation on his ankle, but had received information that Puletua's injury could be managed through the Tri-Nations series and that around four weeks' rest after the tour would fix it.

The NZRL last night sought intervention from the NRL's senior doctor, Dr Hugh Hazard, who is also the Kangaroos' doctor. It could be his call that decides things.

The good thing from the Kiwis' point of view is that they have ready replacements when they land in England, with capable second-rowers in Ali Lauitiiti and Logan Swann available for their second game of the series, against the Kangaroos in London on October 23.

But the issue has concerned the chairman of the NZRL, Selwyn Pearson, sufficiently to have him determined to raise it at meetings of the Rugby League International Federation during the upcoming series.

He has a letter from the Penrith club that states it was leaving the decision on Puletua's availability for the tour up to the player.

But yesterday the league was advised that the club expected him in Sydney for a date with the surgeon on October 21.

"The problem is that the club pays their wages," Pearson said.

But the future of international football depended on the availability of the best players.

"I have signed a contract, as did the ARL and the ERL, stating that we must pick the best possible players. If the clubs dictate everything then we have a serious problem."

Penrith did not respond to inquiries last night.