{"id":665559,"date":"2026-11-03T11:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T11:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/665559\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T11:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T11:36:07","slug":"kalyn-ponga-new-zealand-star-returns-to-reserve-list-for-world-cup-semis-after-broken-arm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/665559\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalyn Ponga: New Zealand star returns to reserve list for World Cup semis after broken arm"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand have named Kalyn Ponga on the reserve list for their Rugby League World Cup semi-final against Tonga – just three weeks after he broke his forearm.<\/p>\n

And hooker Phoenix Crossland has also been included on the reserve list after completing a four-match ban imposed for the tackle that ruled Nathan Cleary out of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Ponga suffered a broken arm on 15 October during the opening game of the tournament, which New Zealand lost to Australia in a thrilling encounter.<\/p>\n

The full-back played on for around 20 minutes with the injury as Australia narrowly triumphed 24-22, before having to go for surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But even at the time, head coach Stacey Jones expressed hope that Ponga would be fit for the final on 15 November if New Zealand got there.<\/p>\n

Crossland, meanwhile, is back available after missing the entire group stage as he served his suspension.<\/p>\n

The Newcastle Knights hooker was sent off for a ‘hip-drop’ tackle on Australia’s Nathan Cleary while playing against Penrith Panthers in the NRL play-offs on 27 September.<\/p>\n

It left Cleary with a compound fracture and dislocation to his left ankle, ruling him out of the World Cup<\/a> on home soil.<\/p>\n

Crossland – who apologised to Cleary – missed the NRL Grand Final, which the Knights lost to Sydney Roosters, and sat out all three of New Zealand’s Group A matches.<\/p>\n

As it stands, Crossland and Cleary would not play in Saturday’s semi-final as reserves, but they could still be moved into the 19-man matchday squad later this week before the game against Tonga in Newcastle, New South Wales (09:05 GMT).<\/p>\n

Tonga, who effectively eliminated England by beating them 30-12 in their opening game on 17 October, are unchanged from their final group match.<\/p>\n

They finished top of Group B-C with a 20-18 win over Samoa, and will look to repeat their 2017 World Cup group-stage victory over New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Reigning champions Australia face Samoa in Sydney on Sunday (09:05 GMT) in the other men’s semi-final.<\/p>\n

Australia’s XIII is unchanged, with Reece Walsh continuing ahead of James Tedesco at full-back.<\/p>\n

Samoa, whose narrow defeat by Tonga confirmed England’s elimination, bring in Ronald Volkman at stand-off after losing Chanel Harris-Tavita to a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand have named Kalyn Ponga on the reserve list for their Rugby League World Cup semi-final against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-665559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}