League: Leuluai undaunted by latest test call-up

By PETER JESSUP


If there is an odd man out among those preparing for the Kiwis-Kangaroos game at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday it is New Zealand's halfback, Thomas Leuluai, the only member of either squad not coming out of a professional competition.

Leuluai was called up from the Bartercard Cup competition, as he was in April for the Anzac test and last year for the centenary test.

"It's not where you want to be playing your football," he said, though his form for Otahuhu-Ellerslie was good until they exited the competition one game short of the grand final.

He knows the big Australian forwards will run at him all night because they will perceive weakness - at 1.75m he is the smallest player on the field and at 84kg he is 5kg lighter than opposite Craig Gower.

He is also one of only two players not to have come fresh from the NRL. The other is Motu Tony, who was in Super League.

"That goes with the role of halfback," Leuluai said, showing little sign of the nerves that beset him before his test debut last October.

Then, as the second-youngest Kiwi ever, at 18 years and 118 days, he was shy, focused on his role and keen not to be seen as any sort of a target.

He played a blinder in that game, coming on at 20 minutes to immediately be flattened by opposite Brett Kimmorley in a high tackle.

He bounced up from that and had a hand in four of the Kiwis' six tries.

It is clear the confidence has stayed with him, despite his meagre 10 games in the NRL this season and a total of 22 since his debut last year.

"Everything changed for me after the test last year," he said. "I see this one as a chance to get back on track."

Leuluai is not bitter that others were preferred ahead of him at the Warriors.

"I had some chances and I didn't make the most of them."

But he does want regular game-time, and with the Warriors sticking with Stacey Jones at halfback, Lance Hohaia there and Nathan Fien coming in, he decided to ask for a release and is negotiating with Parramatta.

"I want to go to the Eels - there's a few things still to sort out and I'm leaving the details to my manager [Peter Brown]." The tough year at the Warriors had been character-building, he said.

"It hasn't been much fun reading the newspaper. It's been hard at times. Hopefully I won't have another season like this."

His famous father, James, who played 29 tests as a slinky centre and is in the Kiwis camp as a backline adviser, has had little to do with his play individually other than as his Otahuhu-Ellerslie coach.

"He gives me good advice, but he doesn't harp on, which is good. I listen."

The Tri-Nations offered a high to end the year on.

"I enjoy the tests. There's a real buzz in the dressing room beforehand."

Leuluai will have a big role in the field kicking game and it is his acceleration and incisiveness in gaps that the big Kiwi forwards will need to bust the Kangaroos' line.

Coach Daniel Anderson has no concerns about Leuluai's being up to it. Nor is he worrying about Matt Utai being a target for the Aussie kickers after Matt Sing scored three tries jumping against him in the Cowboys' win over the Bulldogs in the NRL playoffs.

The accuracy of the kicking game relied on field position and the Kiwis' goal has to be to keep the Kangaroos at a distance where they can not drop smart bombs.

Utai could jump and defend and there would be no defensive positional shuffle to counter any weakness the Australians might try to exploit.

Utai is keen to make the most of the limited role he can play in the Tri-Nations and showed his determination to regain the Kiwis jersey he had in 2002 by delaying surgery for an ankle injury he's had since round seven of the NRL. He played in October 2002 against Australia in Wellington carrying an injury to the same ankle and then missed the tour to England, as he will this year.

He admitted he had pulled up sore after trainings this week.

"All I can do is toughen up for this one last game and then fly back to Australia and get the op done," he said. "It's mostly a mental thing - I played with it in the grand final and it felt good then."

Second rower Tony Puletua did not take part in the training run yesterday and there are no concerns his ankle injury will keep him out of the test. His absence was precautionary.

The Kiwis train today at North Harbour Stadium at 4pm in a public session.