The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

[VIDEO] Australian Kangaroos team named to play New Zealand

26th April, 2015
Advertisement
The international league calendar needs a shake up. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)
Expert
26th April, 2015
75
4047 Reads

Australian rugby league team coach Tim Sheens and the Australian selectors have announced their Kangaroos team to play New Zealand next Friday Night at Suncorp Stadium in a one-off Test match.

The Australian team named for the clash is below:
1. Billy Slater (Melbourne Storm)
2. Alex Johnston (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
3. Will Chambers (Melbourne Storm)
4. Greg Inglis (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
5. Josh Dugan (St George Illawarra Dragons)
6. Johnathan Thurston (North Queensland Cowboys)
7. Cooper Cronk (Melbourne Storm)
8. Matt Scott (North Queensland Cowboys)
9. Cameron Smith (c) (Melbourne Storm)
10. Aaron Woods (Wests Tigers)
11. Greg Bird (Gold Coast Titans)
12. Sam Thaiday (Brisbane Broncos)
13. Corey Parker (Brisbane Broncos)

Interchange:
14. Luke Lewis (Cronulla Sutherland Sharks)
15. Trent Merrin (St George Illawarra Dragons)
16. Nate Myles (Gold Coast Titans)
17. James Tamou (North Queensland Cowboys)

18th man: Daly Cherry Evans (Manly Warringah Sea Eagles)
Also a part of the squad: Michael Jennings (Sydney Roosters), Josh Papalli (Canberra Raiders)

The team named for the game with New Zealand has four debutants in the shape of Josh Dugan, Alex Johnston, Will Chambers and Trent Merrin. Interestingly three of these are in the backline making it a very inexperienced backline for Australia.

A 20-man squad has been named due to a number of players being under injury clouds. Billy Slater is under the biggest cloud heading into the match and you would imagine that if he can’t play for Australia, which was suspected in the lead up, then either Greg Inglis or Josh Dugan will play at fullback with Michael Jennings coming into the side.

In another interesting move Josh Dugan has been named on the wing, a position that he has never played before. He briefly played centre last year and represented the New South Wales Blues there in the State of Origin series.

Notable omissions include Cronulla captain Paul Gallen, who is injured, and Broncos captain Justin Hodges, who made a return from a hamstring injury in Brisbane’s win against Parramatta on Saturday.

Advertisement

Don’t forget you can follow live coverage of all the representative clashes next weekend right here on The Roar.

close