Former Warriors coach Tony Kemp has taken aim at a number of Indigenous and Māori All Stars players who have pulled out of this year’s edition of the annual showcase.
Kemp questioned the reasons behind why players have pulled out of the clash set to be played at Rotorua International Stadium — labelling their excuses as illegitimate.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona (dog bite), Joseph Manu (facial fracture) and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak (hamstring) are among some of the Māori players that have pulled out of this weekend’s clash.
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Meanwhile, four Indigenous All Star players including last year’s captain Josh Addo-Carr have also ruled themselves out of the fixture.
“I don’t think that it’s legitimate,” Kemp told SENZ.
“What people have forgotten, players have only been back since the Christmas break, a lot of them, because they’ve been at the World Cup.
“It’s really sad… you finally get this game to New Zealand, so they go, ‘Right, because of what the Warriors have done over the last three years we’re going to bring a game to New Zealand’.
“Which is a great concept, they’ve got that right, great concept and they’re going to bring it to New Zealand and then they don’t go in and sort the CBA out.”
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With pre-season trials approaching Kemp believes some players have been pressured by their clubs to not participate in the fixture.
“I don’t think it’s just because players don’t want to come here,” Kemp added.
“I think that clubs are saying, ‘Well you’re not coming here because there’s insurance
problems, there’s CBA issues, we’re not going to risk you, we need you for the start of the season, you haven’t been training since after Christmas and you’re not ready to go out there and play’.
“The sad thing about that is we’ve got this wonderful game and we’re not going to have the best players to look at.
“We’re not going to have the best Indigenous stars and we already know that we’ve got close to 10 of our first choice Māori boys not playing, so now it’s becoming a bit of a reserve grade match.”
