James McOnie: The day Stacey will regret forever

Amid all the adulation of the past week, Stacey Jones may well roll his eyes at seeing this in print again - I beat him in a kicking duel.

Still, it's the truth. The sad part is it won't happen again because, just as Jones has quit international rugby league, I have retired from all kicking contests with legendary footballers.

It was over a few drinks after the Kiwis' honorable defeat in the 1999 Anzac test in Sydney that I think I said I could beat any Warrior in a kicking competition, apart from Matthew Ridge (I wasn't stupid). Jones accepted the challenge and demanded satisfaction after training on Tuesday.

I had anticipated a game of force back and perhaps some goalkicking but Jones was in a hurry and suggested we go straight to the sideline. First to land a goal wins.

He held the home ground advantage at Ericsson but selected the sideline that actually favoured my left foot. I landed my second kick.

Jones didn't have the distance. Jones left Ericsson that day wanting a rematch. He never got it. It's probably the one big regret of his career that will never make his book.

But surely there is no shame in losing to a fuller-figured journalist (wearing touch shoes) who was once the understudy to Grant Fox's understudy at Auckland's University Rugby Club.

Even Fox would tell you a sideline kick is a long one and truth is most part-timers - which is what Jones was at the time - struggle to make the 40m.

What Jones has done since that day - and let's say because of that day - is improve every aspect of his kicking to world class.

His goalkicking has been the last to fall into line this season, with an exceptional 71 per cent success rate.

As a failed sportsman, I cannot abide professional athletes not working on something that would improve their, and their team's, chances of victory. They are paid to do so.

If German striker Jurgen Klinsmann had worked on his left foot perhaps he would have won more than one World Cup and European Championship. OK, that's quite a bad example.

Rugby league doesn't always attract natural kickers but it produces great ones - among them Daryl Halligan (who can forget the strike-rate?), Brad Fittler (who can forget the spiral bomb?) and Andrew Johns (who can forget last night?).

Jones was always a deft chip-kicker. He soon became a cross-field bomb specialist and was quick to exploit league's 40-20 rule. He threw in a few bananas not long after Johns and then became one of the most reliable drop-goal exponents in the NRL - one memorable field-snap saw off Canberra in the 2003 playoffs.

What matters is Jones constantly worked on his kicking game to reach a level that surpassed me... and he still owes me a jersey.