He is the man who stands between Australia and World Cup glory. But Kalyn Ponga only came clean about his dream of representing New Zealand in a Las Vegas lift earlier this year.
The star fullback was on the glitter strip with the Knights for their season opener when he hopped in an elevator with ARL Commission executive chairman Peter V’landys inside Resorts World.
The State of Origin eligibility rules had been tweaked a few weeks earlier to allow NSW and Queensland players to represent the Kiwis or England, provided they satisfied the criteria.
Until then, Ponga had stayed quiet about whether he would commit to Australia or New Zealand, the country of his parents’ birth. But V’landys took the opportunity to put him on the spot.
“I was in the lift with Kalyn in Las Vegas, it was just the two of us, and I asked him, ‘Are you fair dinkum about switching to New Zealand?’” V’landys said on Tuesday.
“He said, ‘It’s my heritage, it’s been a lifelong dream’, and I said, ‘We’ll always support your application [to play for New Zealand]’. That was it. We were together a couple of minutes, but I could quickly sense the passion he had for New Zealand in his voice.
“I firmly believe a player should be able to select which country they want to play for. That’s why we changed the Origin international eligibility rules in the first place.
“The rule change has paid dividends because of how good the competition has been this World Cup.
“It’s become a marketer’s dream, with Reece Walsh versus Kalyn Ponga on Sunday night . What they did in that first game of the [World] Cup, when Australia played New Zealand, was the highlight of my season.
“There will be no mixed emotions watching ‘KP’ on Sunday night and if New Zealand win.
“If someone is passionate about representing their country, there is no way we will stand in their way.”
Ponga played through the pain of a broken arm in the Cup opener when he and Walsh produced their share of magical moments. Walsh denied Ponga a certain try before half-time, and stepped past him to score a try in the second half, while Ponga did likewise in the second half.
The Knights skipper had 11 screws and a plate inserted into his arm and returned with a defensively, in the semi-final win over Tonga on Saturday.
Ponga and Walsh, along with Kiwi Casey McLean, Tonga’s Rob Toia, and Samoa’s Francis Manuleleua are the five finalists for the Golden Boot, the top award that honours international performances, which is announced on Thursday.
The gun No.1’s high-profile defection could also hurt the Kangaroos in the hip pocket, with the Cup winners to receive $250,000 in prizemoney, and the runners-up $125,000. The players split half the prizemoney, with the other 50 per cent going to the respective governing bodies. The same arrangement is in place for the womens’ game.
Ponga praised his opposite number at a Tuesday media call in Brisbane, where Walsh is a Broncos and Queensland hero. “I respect Reece a lot, he’s a good friend, a teammate in the past,” Ponga said. “We all love seeing Reece do well. It’s always all love off the field, but once we’re on the field, we aren’t friends.
“Hopefully, we can both make Sunday night entertaining, hopefully not too much for him, [and] we can limit his role a bit. But he’s a player we all love to watch and support.
“You don’t know what’s going to unfold, but we both know our role for the team, and there are always going to be moments of individual brilliance.”
Australian hooker Harry Grant said of his Queensland teammates Walsh and Ponga: “They’re in sweet spots with their game at the moment. With our team, we can only try to maximise the opportunities that we give Reece and then nullify the opportunities that Kalyn has.”
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