New Zealand Kiwis forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona (second right) celebrates a try in a 2023 test. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Jeremy Marshall-King is an elite hooker now and Scott Sorensen, Briton Nikora and Isaiah Papali\u2019i bring different strengths to the second row. Storm giant Nelson Asofa-Solomona is the wildcard, after another season affected by suspension, form and injury restricted him to 12 games \u2013 but he has been vital performer in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel for him, the way that the game has changed,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s changed the way the judiciary works and I get it [as] we\u2019ve got to look after player welfare and there\u2019s parts of Nelson\u2019s game that he has to be more careful with now. But he loves this space, the Kiwi jersey, he\u2019s looked after himself and he\u2019s kept his training up. He was certainly someone who was missed [last year] and he\u2019s someone that when he\u2019s in the opposition team, there\u2019s a bit of fear there.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are greater questions around the backline. Injured halfback Jahrome Hughes will be sorely missed \u2013 again \u2013 while Dylan Brown had a mixed season at Parramatta, ending with a few games at centre after his big money deal to Newcastle was announced. Kieran Foran, 35, will have to summon one last miracle<\/a> while Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and Keano Kini offer different options at fullback. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got an idea of how that will work,\u201d said Jones. \u201cI\u2019ve got to get in with the other coaches to sort through that.\u201d<\/p>\n After an amazing season, Canberra\u2019s Kaeo Weekes would have been a strong fullback option, eligible for the Kiwis through his New Zealand parents. Jones confirmed New Zealand Rugby League has held discussions with the 23-year-old about playing for the Kiwis. <\/p>\n \u201cI had a good conversation with Kaeo last year and his manager,\u201d Jones said. \u201cHe grew up in Australia and wants to go down the Origin path.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s believed Weekes also wants to play for the Kiwis but it\u2019s not possible to do both as the current eligibility rules preclude players from taking part in the interstate series and representing tier one nations such as New Zealand or England. Samoa and Tonga are classed as tier two nations, so their players can cross over. <\/p>\n \u201cIf the rules were to change then you could go down that path,\u201d Jones said of Weekes. \u201cBut at the moment the rules are where it\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n The Kiwis face Samoa at Go Media Stadium on Sunday, October 19 (kickoff 6pm), preceded by a test between the Kiwis Ferns and Fetu Samoa. After a bye week, the Kiwis will play Tonga at Eden Park on November 2, with the Kiwi Ferns facing the Jillaroos. The Pacific Championships final is in Sydney on November 8. <\/p>\n Michael Burgess<\/a> has been a Sports Journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America\u2019s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe had players in our wider [30-man] squad that are in other squads,\u201d he told the Herald. \u201cPlayers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,1558,5432,5759,1320,124,2550,3606,20246,305,221,2176,807,20245,117,111,43,139,69,13572,53478,53477,18835,42699,7187,53476,53475,3006,6736,4741,80],"class_list":["post-66133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-been","tag-between","tag-championships","tag-coach","tag-could","tag-even","tag-gun","tag-halasima","tag-have","tag-how","tag-jones","tag-kiwis","tag-leka","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pacific","tag-picked","tag-stacey","tag-strong","tag-stronger","tag-team","tag-tonga","tag-torn","tag-warriors","tag-was","tag-young","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}