Mal Meninga targets more international rugby league, not hybrid Wallabies Test

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This was published 6 years ago

Mal Meninga targets more international rugby league, not hybrid Wallabies Test

By James Buckley
Updated

Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga has labelled a proposed one-off Test match against the Wallabies as a pipe dream, and believes playing more internationals against Pacific island nations is a much more prudent approach to growing rugby league.

Speaking ahead of Saturday's final World Cup pool match against Lebanon, Meninga reiterated his long-term strategy of taking rugby league abroad to expand the code's international footprint.

Meninga was a driving force behind the Three Nations concept last month, where Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea clashed in a three-way Test in Suva to round out their respective World Cup preparations. Each side played 40 minutes against the other in the unique format.

He is also an advocate of expanding the annual Prime Minister's XIII concept, which in recent years has seen a modified Kangaroos side travel to Papua New Guinea during the NRL finals to play the Kumuls.

Circumspect: Coach Mal Meninga wants nothing to do with a proposed Wallabies-Kangaroos clash.

Circumspect: Coach Mal Meninga wants nothing to do with a proposed Wallabies-Kangaroos clash.Credit: AAP

A Kangaroos versus Wallabies cross-code Test match has been floated in the past without being established, and Meninga said he hadn't afforded the idea much consideration.

"It'd be a promoter's dream I would guess, we haven't given it much thought," Meninga said. "No one's actually talked to us at the moment about it.

"We've got to play more games of international rugby league, so that's how we're going to grow the game of rugby league, taking it to new areas.

"Through the Pacific we need to keep on working hard there and we're going to the US for the World Cup, 2025. We've got to keep on playing international rugby league games in different countries and keep on propagating it that way.

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"Anything we can do to keep on helping those nations, play events in their countries, the better off they're going to be."

Meninga's Kangaroos remain unbackable favourites to win another rugby league World Cup, but the tournament has produced significant interest from several smaller nations who have impressed over the past fortnight.

Tonga takes on New Zealand in arguably the match of the tournament on Saturday night, when Jason Taumalolo goes up against his ex-teammates after defecting to the Pacific Island nation last month.

Manu Ma'u, David Fusitu'a and Sio Siua Taukeiaho among others did the same thing, while former Kangaroo Andrew Fifita defected from Meninga's side to represent Tonga after being named in the Australian World Cup squad.

Their match against Samoa last weekend came complete with two spine-tingling pre-game war dances before Tonga ground out a 32-18 win.

"Anything like that, when it's done with passion, it makes you feel good, you get goose bumps on your body and at times you wish you were part of all that," Meninga said. "It was a great spectacle and it's good for our game.

"The eligibility rules have been loosened, I think that's really important. If you don't get picked in a tier-one team you're allowed to play for your country of ancestry and that's great.

"The more games we can play against each other, the Kangaroos playing against the Samoans or the Tongans or the Papua New Guineans or the Fijians, whoever, the better international rugby league will be and the better the players playing for those tier-two nations will get."

Meninga has named a much-altered team to the one that beat France 52-6 last weekend for the Lebanon clash.

Vice-captain Boyd Cordner returns, relegating four-try hero Wade Graham to the bench.

Tom Trbojevic and Cameron Munster will pair up in the centres, while James Maloney links up with Cooper Cronk in the halves as Meninga continues to experiment with his squad ahead of the finals.

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"We're still having to think about things, I'm pretty sure we'll play against Samoa in the quarter-finals so we'll pick a team that's going to be very competitive against them," Meninga said.

"We've opened it up to everyone. The certainties are Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater I think that this stage."

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