Kiwis fired up to regain league mana

Press, 29 July 1986, Page 40

Kiwis fired up to regain league mana

NZPA staff correspondent Brisbane The Kiwis will return to Brisbane’s Lang Park this evening fired up to repeat their sensational victory of three years ago and deny Australia two of the six World Cup points the Kangaroos are aiming for this year.

Lang Park, renowned for its parochial Queensland crowds, was the scene of one of the Kiwis’ greatest triumphs when in 1983 the side turned a first test loss in Auckland into a 19-12 victory that ended a 16-test run of wins by the Australian world champions. It was also the scene last year of a sensational off-field brawl involving the Kiwi prop and sometime boxer, Kevin Tamati, and his Australian opposite number Greg Dowling, just two minutes from the end of a thriller test in which the lead changed six times and the Australians came out on top, 2620: Yesterday the Kiwis put in a ferocious final training session that had onlookers wincing as forward and back alike ripped into each other with a commitment bom of a determination to at least partly wipe the slate on the two test losses to the Australians so far this series. New Zealand’s coach, Graham Lowe, said: "If they carry that sort of commitment on to the field tomorrow night we are in with a great chance.” With the three-test test series now lost after defeats in Auckland and Sydney, the New Zealanders are looking to salvage some measure of revenge and at the same

time win the two points towards the World Cup that come with the final game of each international series. “This game is a series in one lump,” said Mr Lowe. "The pressure is on the Australians as much as it is on us; we have five points towards the Cup total and they have none. "They are going for six points this season (the Kangaroos later this year embark on a tour of Britain and France) and we aim to deprive them of two of them.” Mr Lowe scoffed at news media speculation that the Kiwi prop, Kurt Sorensen, and his Australian opposite, Steve Roach, would stage a repeat performance of the Tamati-Dowling affair, or that the Kiwis were out for blood. Sections of the news media have seized on Mr Lowe’s comment last week that the New Zealanders would "do anything” to win the third test as indicating a fiery finale to what for the Kiwis has been a disappointing series. The coach simply shook his head and muttered “rubbish” when told of the speculation, and said he knew of no niggle between Sorensen and Roach. Mr Lowe, well satisfied after the training performance yesterday

morning, said he expected more of the same tight control from the Australians, while the New Zealanders had been concentrating on eliminating errors. He said the side had profited by having the Sydney-based players join the side in Mackay on Wednesday instead of just two days before the test as originally planned, but said the Australians still had a big advantage because of the three-match New South Wales-Queens-land State of Origin series. "Before the first test they had virtually played three tests together (10 of the test team are from the New South Wales side), and now this will be their sixth test and bur third,” he said. As far as the coach is concerned the Australian skipper, Wally Lewis, is still the key to the Australian side regardless of the reputation of the centres, Brett Kenny and Gene Miles, while in his own side each of the 13 players had a job to do and Mr Lowe would single none of them out for mention. He said the move of Gary Prohm from the base of the scrum out to the Kiwi centres was made because of the test veteran’s experience. Asked whether he was confident of victory, Mr Lowe’s response was emphatic and simple: “Yes.”