Roosters\u2019 big blow; Broncos\u2019 boost in top-four race<\/a><\/p>\nPayne Haas, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he has got his work cut out for him.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Daily Telegraph\u2019s Phil Rothfield believes Walters will have a huge task to win without potentially three of the first players picked. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is going to be such a tough tour,\u201d Rothfield said. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of players in Haas, Tino and now the Hammer might not make themselves available for that green and gold jersey. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know we have tremendous back-up in the centres, but is Latrell going to be fit to tour? Cam Murray in the old days was an automatic selection. Jake Turbo was too. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is going to be a really tough tour.\u201d <\/p>\n
Braith Anasta asked on NRL 360: \u201cDo we think that Hammer, Tino and Haas are going to play for Australia or not? What are the odds here?\u201d<\/p>\n
Read believes all three will defect from the Kangaroos to Samoa. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think Haas will,\u201d Read said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think Payne would have played for Samoa last year if he was fit and this year I think he will play for Samoa. <\/p>\n
Why the delay on Walters decision? | 02:22<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Tino by the sounds of it is definitely leaning that way and my understanding is that Tino and Hammer have actually spoken about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey spoke about it during Origin camp with Queensland, so there is every chance that <\/p>\n
Hammer plays for Samoa. He has played for Samoa before at a World Cup a few years ago. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think they all will play for Samoa.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rothfield believes players defecting from Australia to the tier two nations is great for the international game. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy isn\u2019t it that this started four or five years ago with Andrew Fifita and Jason Taumalolo and its just growing and growing,\u201d Rothfield said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI actually think it is great for International rugby league. Australia used to just have to put their jerseys on and turn up to win and the international game was pretty rubbish I thought.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now we have the Pacific Islands, England and New Zealand and I think it is great.\u201d <\/p>\n
“They’ve beaten nobody!” | 01:01<\/p>\n
However, Dan Ginnane believes it is time for Samoa and Tonga to become tier one nations and force players to choose their allegiances once and for all. <\/p>\n
\u201cI like it, but I don\u2019t like it when one of the players intimate, if I don\u2019t get picked for Australia I will go and play for one of the Pacific Nations,\u201d Ginnane said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think Hammer said that in a press conference. I would rather he just say, I want to play for Samoa and that\u2019s the end of that. <\/p>\n
\u201cI do think we need to get to tier one status for Samoa and Tonga and have some moratorium or amnesty for a year, that whoever wants to go across this is your chance, but that\u2019s it. We can\u2019t have chopping and changing.\u201d <\/p>\n
“The spin doctors have got to you!” | 02:23<\/p>\n
However, Read warned that such a move would force players to choose between playing State of Origin and playing for their country, which would deny one or the other some of the biggest stars in the game. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like that idea,\u201d Read said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have never been a fan of that idea because then you force players to make a choice between playing for Samoa and Tonga and playing State of Origin. I think they will all play State of Origin.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concerns have been raised over the future of International and State of Origin eligibility with incoming Kangaroos coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-11814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}