Four Nations

New Zealand Squad named

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/2725339/World-Cup-winners-dominate-Kiwis-squad

Louis Anderson (Warrington), Roy Asotasi (South Sydney), Adam Blair (Melbourne), Luke Covell (Cronulla), Greg Eastwood (Bulldogs), David Fa'alogo (South Sydney), Nathan Fien (St George Illawarra), Kieran Foran (Manly), Alex Glenn (Brisbane), Bryson Goodwin (Bulldogs), Dene Halatau (Wests Tigers), Bronson Harrison (Canberra), Lance Hohaia (Warriors), Krisnan Inu (Parramatta), Shaun Kenny-Dowall (Sydney Roosters), Thomas Leuluai (Wigan), Jeff Lima (Melbourne), Kevin Locke (Warriors), Issac Luke (South Sydney), Simon Mannering (Warriors), Benji Marshall (Wests Tigers), Steve Matai (Manly), Ben Matulino (Warriors), Fuifui Moimoi (Parramatta), Jason Nightingale (St George Illawarra), Frank-Paul Nuuausala (Sydney Roosters), Russell Packer (Warriors), Sam Perrett (Sydney Roosters), Eddy Pettybourne (South Sydney), Frank Pritchard (Penrith), Sam Rapira (Warriors), Ben Roberts (Bulldogs), Jerome Ropati (Warriors), Setaimata Sa (Sydney Roosters), Junior Sau (Newcastle), Jeremy Smith (St George Illawarra), Iosia Soliola (Sydney Roosters), Chase Stanley (St George Illawarra), Zeb Taia (Newcastle), Fetuli Talanoa (South Sydney), Taniela Tuiaki (Wests Tigers), Manu Vatuvei (Warriors), Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (Manly), Brent Webb (Leeds) and Antonio Winterstein (Brisbane).

Good mix of young and old

seriously wtf is jerome ropati doing there :/

incumbent I guess...

I cbf counting all those players... but it looks like its well over 40, so its just a training squad containing a lot of wtf names who are not even close to pulling on a kiwi jersey. Zeb Taia? who?

Looks like Kidwells flame has finally extinguished, hes was getting by on sheer anger for a few years there. respect

yeah training squad, says that in story

Who is the 4th nation?

The Frenchies

Asotasi can be crossed off that list now that his season has been ended by injury. Lets hope they don't lose too many others in the closing weeks of the NRL.

KIWIS SQUAD: Adam Blair (Melbourne Storm)
Greg Eastwood (Bulldogs)
Nathan Fien (St George Illawarra Dragons)
Kieran Foran (Manly Sea Eagles)
Bryson Goodwin (Bulldogs)
Bronson Harrison (Canberra Raiders)
Lance Hohaia (NZ Warriors)
Krisnan Inu (Parramatta Eels)
Thomas Leuluai (Wigan Warriors)
Jeff Lima (Melbourne Storm)
Kevin Locke (NZ Warriors)
Issac Luke (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
Benji Marshall (Wests Tigers)
Steve Matai (Manly Sea Eagles)
Ben Matulino (NZ Warriors)
Fuifui Moimoi (Parramatta Eels)
Jason Nightingale (St George Illawarra Dragons)
Frank-Paul Nuuausala (Sydney Roosters)
Sam Perrett (Sydney Roosters)
Frank Pritchard (Penrith Panthers)
Junior Sau (Newcastle Knights)
Iosia Soliola (Sydney Roosters)
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (Manly Sea Eagles).

What?.. no Manu Vatuvei!

I guess with so many good players to choose from you can't have them all.

Kevin Locke must be having the best year of his life.

Vatuvei probably needs to get over his injuries.

Knee still bung, having surgery I think

Every year I look at the Kiwis team and think “fuck we are gonna get raped”.

Thats because we always have one eye on the Kangaroos squad, whom we dont even compare man for man. But yeah this year especially we are short on experience

I was looking forward to seeing what the rejuvenated Ben Roberts and Benji could do together, but ben is missing from that sqaud

Matulino had a terrible year too he is lucky to get a jersey

Come on mate the Aussie selectors had it pretty tough in the past few months as well, what with having to work out who'd take the no.1 jersey out of Billy Slater and Jarrad Hayne...hahah

Matulino wasn't far off for most of the season imo..

Wasnt far off what? His best form you mean? I reckon this year was very poor for him compared to last season. 2nd year syndrome maybe. he was solid this year just not busting tackles or bending guys in half like last season

And yeah the Kangaroo selectors have ot hard alright, "who do we take as halfback back up to J.Thurston? hmmmmmm, ok lets leave SCOTT PRINCE at home"
bastards

Tongans gave the Kiwi's a bit of a shake up last night.

Hohaia had a shocker at fullback, his positioning was sub par

Kiwis named. Same backline as the Tonga test. In the forwards we have Fuifui starting at prop with Lima and Blair at lock. No Eastwood...

Lance Hohaia, Sam Perrett, Steve Matai, Junior Sa'u, Bryson Goodwin, Benji Marshall (captain), Nathan Fien, Jeff Lima, Issac Luke, Fuifui Moimoi, Bronson Harrison, Frank Pritchard, Adam Blair.

Interchange: Thomas Leuluai, Frank-Paul Nuuausala, Iosia Soliola, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Kieran Foran, Ben Matulino.


I'm a bit undecided on that team. I think we match them in the forwards but our backline is a bit shaky...

Anyone know what time kickoff is on sunday morning?

Not liking Hohaia at fullback, was lacking after the Tongan test, rather put Perrett back there

oh, and Eastwood has a hamstring strain

COME ON THE KIWIS!!!

Gutted! I really felt we deserved to win that game. Fuckin convicts stealing it on their penultimate play.

Our forwards utterly dominated throughout though, it was really noticeable how much slower they were because of it. Add a little rust and they were there to be beaten.

Damnit!

FUCKEN ASS!! We got robbed but what a game ...

Just saw replay -- fucking gutted!!!!!!!!

EPIC test match

Shame we could actually get the victory but it was pretty obvious who was the bst team out there. Just a bad kick for goal by Luke was the difference (he played well tho)

I'll be suprisd if Hannat gets much more game time in this tournament or ever again in a Kangaroo jersey, he was totally dominated .... and looked deflated/scared of the big brown biscuits hurtling at him

omg how awesome is Jared H-R? I havent seen a kiwi throw themselves about with such hatred since Tuuta/a young Matai. My new favourite player

Good try from lance and showed again we must get him in space, shame about his strip Ive seen him have that done to him before too

massive games from Soiloa sp on D, Junior Sua on attack, Blair, Moimoi...the whole pack really

Superstar Jarrod Hayne was a complete passenger and Slater didnt really impress either. A rethink for Sheens perhaps

I was at the game - it was mean

Crowd numbers were fairly even but we didn't hear a peep from the Aussies - it was all Kiwi noise!

I wonder what a draw was paying??

It sounded pretty noisy on the tv. BIG chants of KIWI! Sounded like an awesome atmosphere.

Managed to avoid the result and just finish watching now, what a match! Indeed, atmosphere looked huge, could certainly hear nothing but kiwi chants on the UK footage I watched.

gutted I fell asleep and missed it

Hopefully we can bring that same level of enthusiasm to the inevitable rematch!

We'll have to cut down on the thuggery though, how many stupid penalties did we concede in the first half alone? Adam Blair was probably the worst culprit

In saying that though, anyone else think the ref was a bit too fucking eager to blow the whistle for any infringement?

Man, great game but we sooo should've won, fucking painful!

Still really proud of the boys though, and as one of the commentators mentioned, the Aussie fear factor is definitely a thing of the past. Great to see us playing as the WORLD CHAMPS that we are

P.S: The penalty to give them 6 more leading up to that Smith try was BS.

Well yeah - Northern Hemisphere innit.

Remember saying on more than a few occasions "that would've been fine in the NRL".

Tim Sheens agrees...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10606839

Losers

Fail.

Found it odd that Foran was selected in front of Inu

Looked like the boys had one eye on the final tbh

None of the senior players stood up. Every last one of them went missing. What Kearney was thinking picking foran over Inu was fucking stupid. Foran is a stand off who hasnt played football for over 7 weeks. Benji was not seen even once, except that weak attempt at a punch. Our forwards were mud and Fien needs to go. Why Isaac luke wasnt starting is beyond me. And how bad were Perret and Hohaia's hands!!??

Pissed off i got up to watch this piss poor effort

So f*cking sick of us bottling it against England, man-for-man (and as a team) we are so much better...why does this always happen?

Granted, they played well...but we should've put them in their place. We seem to step down to their level every time. Did not adapt well to the reffing yesterday either, we kept allowing them the quick play-of-the-ball when they were lying all over us in every tackle (ref was shithouse), which totally stifled our attack.

Grrrrrr.

Too. Much. Dropped. Ball.

It was that simple. The Foran selection was a weird one, some seem to think it was purely to get Foran to commit to the Kiwis given that he is also eligible for Australia (the IRL hav tightened the international eligibility rules) and Inu was apparently being a slacker at training but in any case, I don't think that was what let us down.

It's a shame but hey, that's league for ya. Bring on next year when we're playing at home!