New Zealand Rugby League officials have issued their Junior Kiwis with a timely reminder of ‘stranger danger’ in the lead up to the curtain-raiser before Saturday’s test in Townsville. Chief Kiwi poacher Mal Meninga has been singled out as the most likely to steal away any gun young players by luring unsuspecting victims into his car with a packed of boiled sweets and the promise of becoming the member of Australia’s most successful sporting dynasties. NZRL chairman Scott Carter sees the raids as an inevitability.
The (Queensland officials) will be everywhere next week, hanging from the trees trying to get a look at our guys. Actually, they probably won’t even bother hiding … they’ll just walk right up and start talking Origin.
Via Fox Sports
And the fear is not without justification with several high profile players getting snapped up by Queensland and Australia despite their NZ heritage. Karmichael Hunt, Ben Te’o, Tonie Carroll (Played for NZ), Brad Thorn (All Black legend) and most recently the Auckland-born Josh Papalii have all been wooed by the Maroons. In an Origin arms-race the Blues poached James Tamou from NZ earlier this year while the Maroons just missed out on Bulldogs front rower Sam Kasino whose loyalty was rewarded with selection in the NZ test squad for the upcoming test.
We expect Mal will be total ‘spring break’ mode with so much fresh meat around. This clip was floating around before this year’s record 7th strait Origin series win. If Mal brings his a-game to Townsville, expect the dominance to continue.
Picture by Scott Barbour at Getty Images
