League: Ex-Hawks pair swoop for title

Jeff Lima aims to put one over on his former Mangere East clubmate by leading Melbourne Storm to victory. Photo / Getty Images

The name World Club Challenge evokes lofty images. It pits the NRL champions Melbourne Storm against UK Super League giants Leeds Rhinos against each other for hemisphere bragging rights.

Yet whatever the outcome at Elland Road, Leeds, on March 1, one club in south Auckland is already a winner.

Storm prop Jeff Lima and Rhinos back rower Ali Lauitiiti both enjoyed three years of their formative league education with the Mangere East Hawks.

The pair may have since gone on to win Kiwi international honours and added grand final successes to their impressive CVs but both players owe a big debt to their time spent playing at Mangere's Walter Massey Park.

Lima, 27, starred at the club from the age of 14 to 16 as a versatile second row, lock and centre and fondly recalls his time at the Hawks.

"I played for fun back then," Lima says. "I was playing more rugby union for the school and league on a weekend. It was good fun, especially when you were winning every week.

"It wasn't a glamorous club - I remember the little changing rooms - but quite a few of us [talented players] came out of there."

Lauitiiti was already earmarked as a future star in the making when he arrived at Mangere East aged 16.

He went on to help the club land a hat-trick of Auckland championships in a side skippered by Lesley Vainikolo, the former Kiwis winger turned-rugby international, and he will never forget the key role the Hawks played in his development.

"I was just a kid coming through but it was fun times and I used to enjoy it," says Lauitiiti, now 30.

"We had a really good team spirit and we all enjoyed each other's company."

Although Lima and Lauitiiti's time at the club overlapped, the pair never got to know each other until later. However, even back then the latter recalls being impressed by the sheer size of Lima and his team-mates while at the Hawks.

"I was aware of Jeff because I remember he was in a pretty big team," Lauitiiti says. "I remember he was pretty good in his grade."

Mangere East has produced a number of other future internationals, including Tea Ropati and George Mann. Club chairman Wayne Harding told the Herald on Sunday that when Lima and Lauitiiti run out to face each other at Elland Road, it will be a proud moment for the club.

He recalls the pair possessed different qualities during their time with the Hawks.

"Jeff was always a leader in the forwards and showed potential," Harding says.

"Ali was always one of the bigger boys, but always had that ability to turn in the tackle and distribute the ball. Ali was a player of flair and Jeff, a player of force."

The World Club Challenge promises to be an intriguing match-up of the sport's two most consistent club teams of recent times.

Last year, the Rhinos made history by landing a third successive Super League title, while the Storm defeated Parramatta 23-16 in an unprecedented fourth-straight NRL grand final appearance.

The statistics favour the Rhinos, coached by former Kiwis boss Brian McClennan, who defeated Melbourne 11-4 in the 2008 World Club Challenge.

Super League teams have won seven of the previous nine encounters and the Rhinos benefit from playing not only in their home city but are also more battle-hardened than the Australian outfit, having started their Super League campaign last month.

Post-match the chances are the pair will sit down and reminisce about old times at Mangere East over a large chop suey.

Meanwhile, one very proud clubhouse in South Auckland will raise a glass in celebration to the significant contribution it played in developing two top-class rugby league talents.