Kiwis Team to Play France

PRESS RELEASE

Kiwis Team to Play France

Avignon, France, October 30, 2013 – By the end of the Kiwis second match at the Rugby League World Cup, 23 of the 24-man squad will have had a game. Thomas Leuluai is still struggling with a groin complaint and won't be risked on Friday night (Saturday morning NZ-time) against France. But the remainder of the squad who didn’t play in the 42-24 win over Samoa in Warrington will run out onto Parc de Sports in Avignon.

“The idea right from the start of the tournament was to give everyone an opportunity to stake a claim for a position,” said Kearney. “That hasn’t changed because of the performance against Samoa on Sunday.”

Jason Nightingale and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck will start on the wings. “Manu Vatuvei picked up a knock to the knee and ankle on Sunday night,” said Kearney. “He mightn’t be able to train fully this week, but it was always my intention to give Jason a run. Roger had a good game against Samoa and it’ll be good for him to have another match this weekend.”

The Kiwi centres will be Bryson Goodwin and Krisnan Inu. “Kris didn’t play last week so I was always going to roll him out,” said Kearney. Goodwin had a tough day in the office against Samoa, which Kearney acknowledges. “I wanted to give him the opportunity to try and fix that.”

Sonny Bill Williams, who picked up a couple of bumps and bruises against Samoa, will sit this match out. “He would’ve been right to play on Friday,” said Kearney “but I wanted to give Alex Glenn an opportunity and also get some more time into Frank Pritchard.”

The Kiwis vs France match kicks off at 8pm Friday, November 1 (France-time), at Parc de Sports, Avignon. The match will be shown live on SKY Sports in NZ on Saturday morning (8am KO NZ-time).

The full Kiwis team to play France is:

ENDS

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