Graham Lowe: Laughing their heads off
The highest honour for any New Zealand league player, the Kiwi jersey, is only ever on loan with those precious jerseys passed from player to player over the years.
Being a Kiwi is a special tradition and players must earn the right to wear the jersey.
The easiest part of the process should be deciding who is eligible - and I'm certain ex-Kiwis wouldn't want their jersey to be passed on to someone who is not a New Zealander.
Those former players created the mould and established the traditions that are part of being a Kiwi. Now someone at the NZRL has broken that mould and badly damaged the traditions.
And they've given Willie Mason the last laugh after last night's decision to dock the Kiwis two points in the series.
Mason said it was a joke having an Aussie in the Kiwi line-up and now it's a bigger joke than we could have imagined. It's a scandal equal to the underarm bowling incident.
I'm not taking aim at Nathan Fien but heck he does deserve a kick in the arse.
I'm certain his intentions were right but surely we are not so desperate that we have to invent ways to field non-Kiwis.
The creative use of the eligibility rule exposes the poor state of the international game and turns people off.
But I have to say I completely agree with the penalty dished out. And die-hard Kiwis fans will too.
This could have been rectified early in the piece with one simple word. Sorry.
Someone from the NZRL should have just said: "This should not have happened, we made an honest mistake and interpreted the rule the wrong way".
And the NZRL should have had a convenor of selectors overseeing what was going on. Part of his role is to ensure the selectors and coach understand the rules - and the consequences of stepping outside them. He is also the link to the board.
I'm sure cheating never entered anyone's mind but that is what the Kiwis have done. This is a mess that has been waiting to happen for a few years. Eligibility should be sorted by the simple use of a passport.
No New Zealand passport, no Kiwi jersey.
I don't even agree with the residency rule of three years. Players come here for three years or more only because they can get a better deal from the Warriors than other Australian clubs. As soon as a better deal comes along they are off.
This whole episode has been a disgrace and will scar the game forever. Someone needs to be made accountable.
Many are calling for structural changes in the governance and management of the game in New Zealand and it is hard not to agree with those views.
As many youngsters will tell you, sometimes, when you are desperate, you just have to dance with the ugly ones and be more confident of a better catch next week.
McClennan and the Kiwis faced that dilemma last week, desperate for a Kiwi win, and getting a result against Great Britain that was certainly not pretty.
But they got there, regardless of last night's decision, and what's helping the Kiwis is depth. New Zealand's best two attacking players are not even in the current squad.
Sonny Bill Williams and Benji Marshall are on the sidelines, yet once again McClennan is getting the best out of his players.
To be able to replace key backline players such as Steve Matai and Shontayne Hape and not miss a beat is a luxury Kiwi coaches have never had. Bluey has shown confidence and faith in his squad and I get the feeling any player could step into any position and do the job.
Our depth is greater than some may argue, especially if you consider some of the young talent. But, unfortunately, there seems to be a view that, unless a player is developed overseas, they are not rated.
The argument is that a young local won't handle the jump to test football - but this doesn't stack up for me. You don't know about players until they are tried and there's nothing quite like the romance of picking a bolter.
The challenge is to develop a local programme that gives New Zealand kids the chance of becoming a Kiwi.
At present the local game is just a sperm bank for NRL and Super League clubs.
Changing that is not a problem for the Kiwi coach, it's the job of the NZRL unless it wants our top players to continue to be developed overseas and then prevented by their clubs from playing in tests.
Nathan Cayless is someone who should figure prominently in the rest of this series. His games from the bench have been the best I've seen from the big Parramatta front-rower in a Kiwi jersey.
He seems to be thriving under McClennan's direction and is in the best international form of his career, bringing a much-needed steadiness to the Kiwi pack. He's not the one-dimensional player he was a couple of years back.
Few people are going to give the Pommies any hope against Australia tomorrow night but they will be a better side from their hit-out against the Kiwis.
The halves combination of Sean Long and Danny McGuire did not inject themselves into the game enough against the Kiwis but, when they did, they looked dangerous.
They will be very disappointed when they go over the game tape because if they had been backing up their forwards, as they usually do in the Super League, they could have made a number of breaks.
The lack of urgency from Great Britain proved very costly.
I know they complained about the time-keeping, but I had the feeling all through the game that they were unaware of how little time they had to catch the Kiwis.
But what worries me most for the series is that Australia have not really clicked.
They've played well in patches but coach Ricky Stuart will be looking for improvement. Perhaps we'll see that tomorrow night.
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