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Milford riled byRaiders

BRONCOS recruit AnthonyMilford says he has no plansto return to Canberra and is shocked at a press releasethat he says represents the final straw for his career atthe Raiders. Currently holidaying in Samoa, Milfordrefuted Canberra’s claim that hewill honour the finalyear of his deal beforemoving to Brisbane in 2015. TheRaiders released a statement on Thursday ‘‘confirming’’the Broncos-bound sensationwould report forpre-season training on December 16.

Dragons sign code hopper

ST GEORGE Illawarra have added to their playmakingoptions for next season by signingMichaelWitt on aone-year NRL deal. The 29-year-old, whowill rejoin theNRL after two seasonswith Super Rugby and twomorein the Super League, joins GarethWiddop and SamWilliams as recruits in the halves for the Dragons in2014. Witt played 90 NRL games between 2003 and2008 in two-year stints with Parramatta, Manly andtheWarriors before switching codes.

Long rest for Rooster stars

SYDNEY Roosters skipper AnthonyMinichiello says asix-week break from football will ensure the Tricolours’World Cup-weary stars will be primed to defend theirNRL title when season 2014 kicks off. The premiersfielded 16 players at theWorld Cup in Britain. With theRoosters to faceWigan in theWorld Club Challenge onFebruary 22 at Allianz Stadium and the NRL Nines inAuckland theweek before, there are fears someRoosters players could risk burnout.

Still workleft to do

Mike Rawiri

MIKE Rawiri is a man on amission in 2014.

Rawiri is hoping it will bethird time lucky for the Terr-itory Titans after he was reap-pointed their coach.

The Titans have finishedrunners-up in the AustralianAffiliated Championships onnine of the past 11 occasions,with Rawiri in charge for thepast two years when the NTfinished second.

The 2014 edition of thechampionships will be inAdelaide on the Queen’sBirthday long weekend.

And NTRL general man-ager John Mitchell is optimis-tic the 2015 championshipswill be in Darwin.

‘‘Mike was certainly anobvious choice with his enor-mous experience and know-ledge of Territ-ory footy,’’ Mit-chell said.

His first job for2014 will be tocoach Darwinagainst AliceSprings in a curtain-raiser inAlice to the Parramatta NRLpre-season game in February.

‘‘Darwin have not playedAlice Springs for about 10years,’’ Mitchell said.

Rawiri has been the NTIShead coach and has coachedinterstate and in New Zea-land along with recentlycoaching Nightcliff Dragons.

He expects most of thesquad for the Alice curtain-raiser to be selected from theNT News team named at theFrank Johnson medal nightin September.

Katherine’s AnthonyBusch, this year’s winner, isexpected to be in the squad.

Busch was one of theplayers in the NT News teamof the year which was domi-nated by Palmerston playerswith seven named in the17-man squad.

—DOUGBOOTH

Aussies confident ofbreaking Cup hoodoo

Australian captain Cameron Smith and his New Zealand counterpart Simon Mannering enjoy a word on the famed turf of Old Trafford yesterday before thepress conference for tomorrow’s World Cup final in Manchester Picture: ALEX LIVESEY

RUGBY LEAGUE

By LIAMFITZGIBBONin Manchester

AUSTRALIAN captain Ca-meron Smith believes agolden generation of Kanga-roos is ready to bury its big-game demons against NewZealand in the Rugby LeagueWorld Cup final.

While Smith has playeddown talk of revenge or re-demption heading into to-morrow’s showdown at OldTrafford, the champion hoo-ker admits reputations are atstake as Australia attempts toreclaim the title lost in 2008.

While the Kangaroos havebeen compared with some ofthe nation’s greatest teams,the Kiwis have proved athorn in their side on a questfor true greatness.

Australia have lost onlytwice in their past 34 Tests,both times to the Kiwis inmajor finals — at the 2008World Cup decider and the2010 Four Nations final.

‘‘The one-off games, we’vetaken care of in the past,’’Smith said.

‘‘They’ve only beaten ustwice in the past five years

but those were big matchesunfortunately. I’m sure theywon’t be letting this oppor-tunity slip. There’s a few peo-ple talking about this as thebest Kiwis side they’ve seenso it’s going to take a specialeffort for us to get a victory.’’

Asked whether the Kanga-roos side, featuring a handfulof potential future immor-tals, had a point to prove,Smith said: ‘‘Every time youturn up and play in a Kanga-roos jersey, there’s alwaysreputation at stake.

‘‘If we win, then people say‘they should have won’ be-cause people say we’ve gotthe stronger side and, if welose, they’ll say it’s a failure.

‘‘There’s a lot of pressureon us and we know that butwe have a pretty high expec-

tation of ourselves as well togo out and play well and win.’’

Saturday’s clash with theSonny Bill Williams-inspiredKiwis could represent thefinal chance for the likes of30-year-olds Smith, Johnath-an Thurston and Billy Slaterto capture a World Cup title.

Smith says failure to liftthe trophy tomorrowshouldn’t tarnish the legacyof some of the game’smodern-day greats but he be-lieves the Kangaroos havegiven themselves every poss-ible chance at capturing a10th World Cup.

Australia have been ruth-less en route to a 13thstraight final appearance,piling on 210 unansweredpoints in two big wins overFiji and thrashings of theUnited States and Ireland.

While the Kiwis couldbenefit from a tougher hit-out in their last-gasp 20-18semi-final win over England,Smith believes Australiahave maintained their formand intensity during aneasier run to the final.

‘‘We couldn’t have askedfor any more with our prep-aration,’’ Smith said.

ALL THE STATS

World Cup Final — Australia v NewZealand at Old Trafford, Manche-ster (12am, Sunday)Head to Head: Australia 91, New Zea-land, 29, Drawn 3Last Meeting: Australia d New Zea-land 32-12 in Canberra (April 2013)World Cup Titles: Australia 9, NewZealand 1Paths to FinalAUSTRALIAd England 28-20 in Cardiffd Fiji 34-2 in St Helensd Ireland 50-0 in Limerickd USA 62-0 inWrexhamd Fiji 64-0 in LondonNEWZEALANDd Samoa 42-24 inWarringtond France 48-0 in Avignond Papua NewGuinea 56-10 in Leedsd Scotland 40-4 in Leedsd England 20-18 in LondonAUSTRALIA: Billy Slater, Brett Morris,Jarryd Hayne, Greg Inglis, Darius Boyd,Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk,Matt Scott, Cameron Smith (c), JamesTamou, Sam Thaiday, Greg Bird, PaulGallen; Interchange: Daly Cherry-Evans,Andrew Fifita, Brent Tate, CoreyParker.NEW ZEALAND: Kevin Locke, RogerTuivasa-Sheck, Dean Whare, BrysonGoodwin, Manu Vatuvei, Kieran Foran,Shaun Johnson, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Issac Luke, Jesse Brom-wich, Simon Mannering (c), Sonny BillWilliams, Elijah Taylor. Interchange:Frank-Paul Nu’uausala, Sam Kasiano,BenMatulino, Alex Glenn.

Kiwis may join elite club

Issac Luke

A GROUP of Kiwis would joinone of rugby league’s mostexclusive lists should NewZealand manage to defendtheir World Cup title againstAustralia tomorrow.In the tournament’s 58-year

history, only 13 players — allAustralians — have featured inmultipleWorld Cup final wins.As survivors of New Zea-

land’s memorable triumph in2008, New Zealand captainSimon Mannering, hooker Is-sac Luke and winger ManuVatuvei have the chance toachieve the rare feat, alongwith Greg Eastwood should heforce his way into StephenKearney’s final 17.Doing so at Old Trafford

would place them in illustrious

company along-side some of thesport’s greatestplayers.Brad Fittler is

the only playerto have fea-

tured in three winning WorldCup final teams, while AndrewJohns, Bob Fulton, ArthurBeetson and Ron Coote areamong thosewho have playedin two.Mannering, Luke or Vatuvei

have not tasted NRL premier-ship success and claimingback-to-back World Cupswould clearly be the crowningachievement of their careersso far.‘‘Obviously it was special to

be part of making history in

2008,’’ Mannering said offiguring in the Kiwis’ firstWorld Cup final win.‘‘It’s been a long time since

then and a lot of things havechanged but hopefully we candefend the title.‘‘It’s going to be a massive

occasion and a World Cup finalonly comes around every fouror five years so we’ll do ourbest tomake themost of it.’’Vatuvei, who looks to over-

come a groin injury to play,said his memories of the 2008triumph still motivate him fiveyears on.Tomorrow’s match could

feature up to five Australianswho played in the surprise34-20 loss to the Kiwis in the2008 decider in Brisbane.

Lockyer can’tsee a repeatA STRONG sense of deja vuhas not convinced formerAustralian captain DarrenLockyer that history willrepeat in tomorrow’s RugbyLeague World Cup finalin England.

Lockyer admits the signsare ominous after concedingAustralia’s path to their ill-fated 2008 cup final was eerilysimilar to the one takenahead of the tournamentdecider at Old Trafford.

However, Lockyer believeslessons learned from theirshock 34-20 final loss to theKiwis in Brisbane five yearsago will ensure Australiawon’t drop their guard.

Lockyer is confident ofBilly Slater’s fitness after thematchwinner was named inthe final’s 19-man squad aftera knee injury.