Five players have been named to make their Test debuts in the New Zealand Kiwis Pacific Championships clash against the Kangaroos in Christchurch on Sunday.
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The match is the second leg of a trans-Tasman Labour Day Weekend doubleheader following the Kiwi Ferns’ encounter with the Australian Jillaroos early in the afternoon.
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In his debut as Kiwi head coach, Stacey Jones has handed maiden Tests to Gold Coast fullback Keano Kini, Melbourne winger William Warbrick, Newcastle hooker Phoenix Crossland, Brisbane second rower Jordan Riki and Sydney Roosters forward Naufahu Whyte.
While Crossland is in a New Zealand camp for the first time, Kini and Whyte were non-playing members of the Kiwis’ title-winning Pacific Championships squad last year, Riki was in New Zealand’s mid-year Test squad in 2022 and Warbrick played for the Kiwis A team against Tonga A last season.
The 26-year-old Warbrick becomes a triple international after impressing with 32 tries in 49 matches in his first two seasons in the NRL.
He was first a New Zealand representative in Australian Rules football before becoming a rugby union international with the All Blacks Sevens, winning a sliver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
With Titans player of the year Kini starting at fullback, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad has been selected at standoff, a role he filled when the One New Zealand Warriors stunned premier Penrith 22-20 during the NRL’s Magic Round in May.
Nicoll-Klokstad teams up in the halves with his 34-year-old clubmate Shaun Johnson who has made a return to the international arena for his 33rd Test just weeks after he announced his retirement.
Hull Kingston Rovers centre Peta Hiku, who arrived back in New Zealand on Sunday, becomes the first Super League-based player to line up for the Kiwis since Thomas Leuluai was brought back home from Wigan for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.
The starting pack features two of Penrith’s four-time premiership-winning forwards in captain and prop James Fisher-Harris and second rower Scott Sorensen.
Christchurch-raised Riki, named on the bench for his debut, is one of five players with South Island connections.
A Riccarton Knights and Hornby Panthers junior, he is joined by Christchurch-born and raised winger Jamayne Isaako (an Aranui Eagles junior) while Greymouth-born forward Griffin Neame played for the Halswell Hornets as a junior and Crossland’s family on his mother’s side are from the West Coast.
Nikorima lived in Christchurch as a youngster playing for the Burnham Chevaliers, Hornby Panthers, Halswell Hornets and Linwood Keas.
Apart from Johnson, the Kiwis’ most experienced Test players are Joseph Tapine (19 Tests), Hiku (17 Tests) and Fisher-Harris and Nikorima (15 Tests each).
Seven players were in the New Zealand side which beat Australia 30-0 in last year’s Pacific Championships final – Isaako, centre Matt Timoko, Nicoll-Klokstad, Fisher-Harris, Tapine, Isaiah Papali’I and Griffin Neame while an eighth player in prop Leo Thompson was ruled out as he serves a one-match suspension picked up in his last outing of the NRL season.
After facing Australia, the Kiwis take on Tonga at Go Media Stadium in Auckland on Saturday, November 2.
Kiwis squad: 1. Keano Kini, 2. Jamayne Isaako, 3. Matthew Timoko, 4. Peta Hiku, 5. William Warbrick, 6. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 7. Shaun Johnson, 8. James Fisher-Harris (c), 9. Phoenix Crossland, 10. Griffin Neame, 11. Isaiah Papali'i, 12. Scott Sorensen, 13. Joseph Tapine, 14. Kodi Nikorima, 15. Naufahu Whyte, 16. Marata Niukore, 17. Jordan Riki, 18. Erin Clark, 9. Trent Toelau, 20. Casey McLean