Australia’s World Cup campaign will kickstart with seven debutants, including three from North Queensland, two of whom gave serious thought to pledging their allegiance to Samoa.
Mal Meninga, as expected, opted to rest the players who featured in the NRL grand final, including Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo and Liam Martin, as well as Parramatta’s Reagan Campbell-Gillard, from Sunday’s opener against Fiji.
Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Angus Crichton, Harry Grant and Pat Carrigan will be joined by Cowboys trio Reuben Cotter, Jeremiah Nanmai and Murray Tuilagi in donning the green and gold for the first time.
Australia’s right edge will feature back-rower Nanai, fellow Cowboy Valentine Holmes and winger Tuilagi against Fiji at Leeds’ Headingley Stadium.
Meninga phoned Cowboys mentor Todd Payten a month ago to inquire about Tuilagi’s ability to play on the right wing – he plays on the left for his club – which was around the same time Samoan officials were convinced Tuilagi and Nanai would join them.
Even an hour before kick-off in the preliminary final when North Queensland were stunned at home against Parramatta, reports started to circulate about Nanai and Tuilagi playing for the Pacific nation.
One-time Samoan targets Jeremiah Nanai and Murray Tuilagi will debut for Australia on Sunday.Credit:Brendon Thorne/Getty Images
But Payten said the pair only ever expressed their interest in playing for Australia, and could not be happier about the club’s strong representation.
Payten himself played under Meninga at Canberra, and his best chance of representing the Kangaroos ended when he trod on as tennis ball at training during the 2010 NRL finals and badly injured his ankle.
“There was a little bit of conjecture publicly around both those guys changing their minds late [about who to represent],” Payten told the Herald.
“I said to the boys, ‘whatever you do, just be clear with everyone, and if that’s wanting to play for Australia, tell Mal’.
Yeeeee-ha: Experienced Cowboy is back for more Kangaroos actionCredit:Getty Images
“They never told me about wanting to represent Samoa, but everyone was going to completely understand whatever nation they wanted to represent.
“They were both strong around wanting to play for Australia, which is great. Jeremiah has told me for a while how he wanted to play for Queensland and Australia. And it wasn’t really on the radar for ‘Muz’ until he was picked in that Queensland team. Muz has been great for us and probably stopped more tries than he has scored them. He started to believe, which was great.”
Cotter was also given the nod following an excellent season for the Cowboys, with the middle forward arguably one of the cheapest forwards in the Roos squad with his annual salary south of $300,000.
Meninga’s assistant Michael Hagan has worked with the Cowboys and appreciated what the four players would bring to the Cup.
As for Meninga, he said of the first squad: “This is an extremely strong team and suits what we are trying to achieve over the whole tournament.
“We have three pool matches and I aim to play every player during the pool matches.
“The grand final players will not play against Fiji, while a number of the players we have named have not played in weeks. It’s important to give them match time as we look at our combinations.
“All of the players who will not play against Fiji will play the next match against Scotland.”
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