Rugby League: Ngamu straight into test squad

By Peter Jessup

Gene Ngamu will go into the Kiwi test camp today to replace injured halfback Stacey Jones, with the distinct likelihood that he will go straight to the bench for Friday night's Tri-Series rugby league game against Great Britain.

Ngamu, just returned from England after finishing the season with Super League wooden-spooners Huddersfield, last played four weeks ago.

Contacted by Kiwi coach Frank Endacott yesterday, he declared himself fit, having continued training and doing plenty of surfing since he got back.

And he assured the coach he was over the leg muscle problem that stifled his play for the Warriors last season after he underwent surgery before departing for Britain.

"He can cover the halves and hooker," Endacott said, adding that the 20-test, 27-year-old had never been completely out of the Tri-Series picture.

"The way the Paul boys and Stacey have been playing no one would get over them. But there's the possibility now he'll go into the 17 [for Friday]," he said.

Endacott needs a relief-injury replacement for hard-working tackler Richard Swain, as well as cover for the Pauls at halfback and standoff, and there is no other specialist in those positions. He called Ngamu in to hooker at the Warriors last season when Syd Eru was missing.

The Kiwis visited Jones in hospital on Saturday after he had rods inserted to realign the elbow and wrist smashed during the 74-0 romp over Tonga on Friday.

He will have a six to eight-week wait before doctors will know how well the bone has knitted and can tell whether he will make the NRL's start on February 5.

The Warriors management, who raised concerns about their players' involvement in the Tonga game, have asked other NRL clubs for their stance on the availability of players for internationals and how matches are classified as tests.

They will then seek an audience with the Rugby League International Federation, which meets in Auckland this week.

Warriors chief executive Trevor McKewen said yesterday that the club was not opposed to internationals, and had staff working to market the Tri-Series as a measure of that, but did not want players put at risk in matches of dubious value.

"No one in Auckland could call [Friday's game] a genuine test match," McKewen said. "We were not consulted about the game. We want a voice at the table when decisions are being made on what is a test match and what is not."

McKewen disputed Endacott's assertion that players cannot be put in cottonwool. The season was very long already and the top players needed rest. A residents' side could have played Tonga with the three reserves who needed a run.

Endacott called that an insult to the Tongans and repeated his pre-match call that every player was at risk at every training session.

The waters on this one are very muddied.

The News Ltd-funded league wanted international matches because its televised club seasons in Australia and Britain are finished. And it wanted the game expanded to give it credibility, seeing the Pacific as an easy starting point.

Super League promised those nations games against the big three, most recently in February at the last RLIF meeting, when the winners of an Oceania tournament mid-season were promised the right to play a Tri-Series side on their off-week. NRL boss Neil Whittaker ratified the agreement on behalf of all clubs, including those complaining now. Hence the Tonga game.

In other Tri-Series news, referee reviewers for Australia and Great Britain gave Kiwi whistler Dave Pakieto the thumbs up for his show in the Kangaroos-Great Britain match at Brisbane on Friday.

Australian Tim Mander will control Friday's match between the Kiwis and Great Britain at Ericsson Stadium. The Lions have returned to the Gold Coast to lick their wounds after the 42-6 hiding from Australia and fly to Auckland on Wednesday.

And the suggestion of a third match between the Junior Kiwis and Junior Kangaroos is off after the New Zealanders went down a second time, 16-25, in Brisbane.