Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Kalyn Ponga hopes his enthralling international rivalry with Australian counterpart Reece Walsh will be outdone in the Rugby League World Cup final.
When the New Zealand fullback and Walsh faced off at the start of the tournament, they left fans praising the duel as one of the best one-on-one battles experienced in Test football.
Both scored breathtaking individual tries, with Walsh also producing a brilliant covering tackle to prevent his opposite No.1 from crossing in the corner.
Ponga was ultimately sidelined with a broken arm until the weekend’s semi-final triumph of Tonga – having 11 screws and a plate put into the bone – as he revealed he sought inspiration from Jahrome Hughes, who made a similarly hasty recovery.
“I was still a bit nervous coming into the game, naturally, coming back from an injury like that,” Ponga said, when asked how the arm had held up.
“But, honestly, from the get-go, once you get into the game and start being focused you forget about it.
“As soon as the game [against the Kangaroos] was over, someone told me Hughsey came back in three weeks. It was a bit of a challenge in my mind. I was always determined to come back, and if he could do it, I could do it.”
Now, Ponga and Walsh will line up in the final at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday as the most eagerly watched players on the field.
Reminded of his and Walsh’s rivalry, the Newcastle Knights star offered a small smile – the pair maintain a close friendship from their time in Queensland Maroons State of Origin camps.
“I respect Reece a lot. He’s a good friend, obviously a teammate in the past,” Ponga said.
“I think we all love seeing Reece do well, and we all love those sorts of battles – it’s always love off the field but hopefully we can both make [Sunday] entertaining.
“No doubt he’s got the same mindset as me: just do our role for the team and, obviously, make the most of our opportunities and put ourselves in the game.
“Every game is different, you don’t know what’s going to unfold.
“There are always going to be moments of individual brilliance at this level. There are so many quality players and, hopefully, we can have a few more than them.”
So brilliant were Ponga’s two showings this World Cup – claiming man-of-the-match honours on Saturday with three try assists, three linebreak assists and 198 running metres – he has been uttered as a prospect for the Golden Boot award.
But Walsh might be the biggest threat for that prize – culminating in scoring a hat-trick against Samoa to vindicate coach Kevin Walters’ decision to entrust him with the fullback jumper at the expense of James Tedesco.
While highlight-reel moments from Walsh and Jack Bostock led Australia to a 26-24 win against the Kiwis when they last fought, what was perhaps more gratifying about the former’s semi-final heroics was he did not need to overplay his hand.
Despite crossing the white line three times, his ability to support five-eighth Cameron Munster’s vision – who came up with three try assists – reaped such rewards.
Kangaroos hooker Harry Grant stopped short of labelling the Walsh-Ponga clash as the match-up that would decide the trophy, claiming “as much as Reece and Kalyn set the show alight in game one, that’s in the past”.
He warned against Australia expecting their enigmatic fullback to produce magic on his own.
“It’s all about preparing well and making sure we’re not looking for those big moments, but really narrowing in on the small parts of our game we want to go after.
“We know we’ve got the strike in the team, and they can have their own opportunities when they do come,” Grant said.
“[Walsh and Ponga] are in sweet spots in their game, and we’ve seen that over the course of the campaign. But we can only try and maximise the opportunities we give Reece, and nullify the opportunities that Kalyn has.
“Both are incredible players, both are unique players to our game, and I think we should celebrate that at all costs.”
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