From smh.com.au
BRISBANE star Karmichael Hunt is considering making himself available to play halfback for New Zealand in the upcoming Anzac Test - a move that demonstrates a new desire among players of Polynesian heritage to represent the Kiwis following last year's Tri-Nations success.
Of the 1952 players registered with the NRL and NSWRL, 271 were either born in New Zealand or their parents were.
Many of them are also eligible to play for Samoa or Tonga, while the heritage of another 29 is solely Samoan and 75 are Tongan.
In the NRL alone it is estimated that 33 per cent of the 375 players in the top 25-man squads at the 15 clubs are Polynesian, and the number is closer to half at junior representative level.
Yet the only halfback or five-eighth of note among them is Wests Tigers star Benji Marshall, arguably the NRL's most marketable player at the moment.
With Stacey Jones playing for French Super League club Les Catalans and Thomas Leualai at London Harlequins, even the New Zealand Warriors do not have a Kiwi wearing the No.7 jersey and are using Queenslander Nathan Fien at the scrumbase.
Parramatta's Marcus Perenara, Rangi Chase at the Tigers and the Bulldogs Billy Ngawini are halfbacks but, like Lance Hohaia at the Warriors, all are playing hooker for their respective clubs' second-tier team.
While Hunt's background in the NRL has been exclusively as a fullback, he played halfback in the Broncos pre-season trials - giving New Zealand coach Brian McClennan the idea of using him in that role for the May 4 Test at Suncorp Stadium.
Until now, Hunt had insisted he wanted to play State of Origin for Queensland and was, therefore, not available for his country of birth but the 19-year-old appears to have softened his stance following some subtle pressure from the Kiwis, including Marshall.
"If they offer me a position, obviously I would consider it. I wouldn't just say no," Hunt told Big League magazine. "I'm pretty focused on playing for the Broncos and playing Origin, but if the opportunity arises and they ask me I definitely will consider it."
Marshall and Hunt played together at schoolboy level in Queensland and the injured Wests Tigers pivot has been lobbying his former teammate to declare his allegiance to New Zealand.
Hunt's agent, David Riolo, said yesterday that his client hadn't raised the issue with him recently but it is understood that McClennan and incoming NZRL chairman Selwyn Bennett will try to meet with him while in Australia for the launch of the 2006 representative season on April 4.
"If the coach wants to talk to him I would support that," Bennett said, "We're always trying to encourage players who are eligible to represent New Zealand to make themselves available for the Kiwis."
With the World Cup to be played in Australia and New Zealand in 2008, organisers are relying on players representing teams they have heritage links with to ensure the success of the tournament - and particularly the Pacific nations.
A proposal to have a combined Pacifika team play the country that has the bye during this season's Tri-Nations tournament was rejected last year by the International Rugby League Federation but will again be tabled at the next meeting in Brisbane.
"I think everybody thought France was going to come out but quite clearly they are not so I will be raising the idea of a Pacifika team again," Bennett said.
"Imagine what sort of a side they could put on the field. We don't have State of Origin in New Zealand but the Kiwis against a Pacific team would be just as big. After all, Auckland is the biggest Polynesian city in the world."
Ever increasingly, though, New Zealand Test players - such as Nathan and Jason Cayless, Frank Pritchard and Jake Webster - are being born in Australia and Bulldogs recruitment manager Mark Hughes estimates that one-third of the players in the Canterbury junior competition are of Polynesian heritage.
Through Hughes and John Ackland, now the assistant coach to Ivan Cleary at the Warriors, the Bulldogs have led the way in the recruitment and development of Polynesian players and their current line-up boasts Kiwis stars Sonny Bill Williams, Matt Utai and Roy Asotasi, while Willie Mason was born in Auckland and Willie Tonga and Reni Maitua have Polynesian heritage.
"When I started doing this 10 years ago clubs were already coming over to New Zealand to recruit players in large numbers," Hughes said yesterday from Auckland, where he had travelled to watch junior representative matches over the weekend.
"One of my first experiences was in the 1997 Super League competition and we had a junior team with Corey Hughes and Brent Sherwin as the halves, both of whom would have been 70 kilograms ringing wet, up against an Auckland team that included Ali Lauitiiti, Lesley Vainikolo, Monty Betham and Wairangi Koopu.
"They were so much bigger and at half-time we trailed 32-0 but the boys fought back to go down 36-34 after Lauitiiti scored their only try of the second half."
"If the coach wants to talk to him I would support that," Bennett said, "We're always trying to encourage players who are eligible to represent New Zealand to make themselves available for the Kiwis."
With the World Cup to be played in Australia and New Zealand in 2008, organisers are relying on players representing teams they have heritage links with to ensure the success of the tournament - and particularly the Pacific nations.
A proposal to have a combined Pacifika team play the country that has the bye during this season's Tri-Nations tournament was rejected last year by the International Rugby League Federation but will again be tabled at the next meeting in Brisbane.
"I think everybody thought France was going to come out but quite clearly they are not so I will be raising the idea of a Pacifika team again," Bennett said.
"Imagine what sort of a side they could put on the field. We don't have State of Origin in New Zealand but the Kiwis against a Pacific team would be just as big. After all, Auckland is the biggest Polynesian city in the world."
Ever increasingly, though, New Zealand Test players - such as Nathan and Jason Cayless, Frank Pritchard and Jake Webster - are being born in Australia and Bulldogs recruitment manager Mark Hughes estimates that one-third of the players in the Canterbury junior competition are of Polynesian heritage.
Through Hughes and John Ackland, now the assistant coach to Ivan Cleary at the Warriors, the Bulldogs have led the way in the recruitment and development of Polynesian players and their current line-up boasts Kiwis stars Sonny Bill Williams, Matt Utai and Roy Asotasi, while Willie Mason was born in Auckland and Willie Tonga and Reni Maitua have Polynesian heritage.
"When I started doing this 10 years ago clubs were already coming over to New Zealand to recruit players in large numbers," Hughes said yesterday from Auckland, where he had travelled to watch junior representative matches over the weekend.
"One of my first experiences was in the 1997 Super League competition and we had a junior team with Corey Hughes and Brent Sherwin as the halves, both of whom would have been 70 kilograms ringing wet, up against an Auckland team that included Ali Lauitiiti, Lesley Vainikolo, Monty Betham and Wairangi Koopu.
"They were so much bigger and at half-time we trailed 32-0 but the boys fought back to go down 36-34 after Lauitiiti scored their only try of the second half."
BRISBANE star Karmichael Hunt is considering making himself available to play halfback for New Zealand in the upcoming Anzac Test - a move that demonstrates a new desire among players of Polynesian heritage to represent the Kiwis following last year's Tri-Nations success.
Of the 1952 players registered with the NRL and NSWRL, 271 were either born in New Zealand or their parents were.
Many of them are also eligible to play for Samoa or Tonga, while the heritage of another 29 is solely Samoan and 75 are Tongan.
In the NRL alone it is estimated that 33 per cent of the 375 players in the top 25-man squads at the 15 clubs are Polynesian, and the number is closer to half at junior representative level.
Yet the only halfback or five-eighth of note among them is Wests Tigers star Benji Marshall, arguably the NRL's most marketable player at the moment.
With Stacey Jones playing for French Super League club Les Catalans and Thomas Leualai at London Harlequins, even the New Zealand Warriors do not have a Kiwi wearing the No.7 jersey and are using Queenslander Nathan Fien at the scrumbase.
Parramatta's Marcus Perenara, Rangi Chase at the Tigers and the Bulldogs Billy Ngawini are halfbacks but, like Lance Hohaia at the Warriors, all are playing hooker for their respective clubs' second-tier team.
While Hunt's background in the NRL has been exclusively as a fullback, he played halfback in the Broncos pre-season trials - giving New Zealand coach Brian McClennan the idea of using him in that role for the May 4 Test at Suncorp Stadium.
Until now, Hunt had insisted he wanted to play State of Origin for Queensland and was, therefore, not available for his country of birth but the 19-year-old appears to have softened his stance following some subtle pressure from the Kiwis, including Marshall.
"If they offer me a position, obviously I would consider it. I wouldn't just say no," Hunt told Big League magazine. "I'm pretty focused on playing for the Broncos and playing Origin, but if the opportunity arises and they ask me I definitely will consider it."
Marshall and Hunt played together at schoolboy level in Queensland and the injured Wests Tigers pivot has been lobbying his former teammate to declare his allegiance to New Zealand.
Hunt's agent, David Riolo, said yesterday that his client hadn't raised the issue with him recently but it is understood that McClennan and incoming NZRL chairman Selwyn Bennett will try to meet with him while in Australia for the launch of the 2006 representative season on April 4.
"If the coach wants to talk to him I would support that," Bennett said, "We're always trying to encourage players who are eligible to represent New Zealand to make themselves available for the Kiwis."
With the World Cup to be played in Australia and New Zealand in 2008, organisers are relying on players representing teams they have heritage links with to ensure the success of the tournament - and particularly the Pacific nations.
A proposal to have a combined Pacifika team play the country that has the bye during this season's Tri-Nations tournament was rejected last year by the International Rugby League Federation but will again be tabled at the next meeting in Brisbane.
"I think everybody thought France was going to come out but quite clearly they are not so I will be raising the idea of a Pacifika team again," Bennett said.
"Imagine what sort of a side they could put on the field. We don't have State of Origin in New Zealand but the Kiwis against a Pacific team would be just as big. After all, Auckland is the biggest Polynesian city in the world."
Ever increasingly, though, New Zealand Test players - such as Nathan and Jason Cayless, Frank Pritchard and Jake Webster - are being born in Australia and Bulldogs recruitment manager Mark Hughes estimates that one-third of the players in the Canterbury junior competition are of Polynesian heritage.
Through Hughes and John Ackland, now the assistant coach to Ivan Cleary at the Warriors, the Bulldogs have led the way in the recruitment and development of Polynesian players and their current line-up boasts Kiwis stars Sonny Bill Williams, Matt Utai and Roy Asotasi, while Willie Mason was born in Auckland and Willie Tonga and Reni Maitua have Polynesian heritage.
"When I started doing this 10 years ago clubs were already coming over to New Zealand to recruit players in large numbers," Hughes said yesterday from Auckland, where he had travelled to watch junior representative matches over the weekend.
"One of my first experiences was in the 1997 Super League competition and we had a junior team with Corey Hughes and Brent Sherwin as the halves, both of whom would have been 70 kilograms ringing wet, up against an Auckland team that included Ali Lauitiiti, Lesley Vainikolo, Monty Betham and Wairangi Koopu.
"They were so much bigger and at half-time we trailed 32-0 but the boys fought back to go down 36-34 after Lauitiiti scored their only try of the second half."
"If the coach wants to talk to him I would support that," Bennett said, "We're always trying to encourage players who are eligible to represent New Zealand to make themselves available for the Kiwis."
With the World Cup to be played in Australia and New Zealand in 2008, organisers are relying on players representing teams they have heritage links with to ensure the success of the tournament - and particularly the Pacific nations.
A proposal to have a combined Pacifika team play the country that has the bye during this season's Tri-Nations tournament was rejected last year by the International Rugby League Federation but will again be tabled at the next meeting in Brisbane.
"I think everybody thought France was going to come out but quite clearly they are not so I will be raising the idea of a Pacifika team again," Bennett said.
"Imagine what sort of a side they could put on the field. We don't have State of Origin in New Zealand but the Kiwis against a Pacific team would be just as big. After all, Auckland is the biggest Polynesian city in the world."
Ever increasingly, though, New Zealand Test players - such as Nathan and Jason Cayless, Frank Pritchard and Jake Webster - are being born in Australia and Bulldogs recruitment manager Mark Hughes estimates that one-third of the players in the Canterbury junior competition are of Polynesian heritage.
Through Hughes and John Ackland, now the assistant coach to Ivan Cleary at the Warriors, the Bulldogs have led the way in the recruitment and development of Polynesian players and their current line-up boasts Kiwis stars Sonny Bill Williams, Matt Utai and Roy Asotasi, while Willie Mason was born in Auckland and Willie Tonga and Reni Maitua have Polynesian heritage.
"When I started doing this 10 years ago clubs were already coming over to New Zealand to recruit players in large numbers," Hughes said yesterday from Auckland, where he had travelled to watch junior representative matches over the weekend.
"One of my first experiences was in the 1997 Super League competition and we had a junior team with Corey Hughes and Brent Sherwin as the halves, both of whom would have been 70 kilograms ringing wet, up against an Auckland team that included Ali Lauitiiti, Lesley Vainikolo, Monty Betham and Wairangi Koopu.
"They were so much bigger and at half-time we trailed 32-0 but the boys fought back to go down 36-34 after Lauitiiti scored their only try of the second half."
