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New Zealand Rugby should avoid a deal with Kalyn Ponga
I wouldn’t touch Kalyn Ponga with a barge pole.
The Newcastle Knights fullback certainly doesn’t lack ability. And can make a positive contribution to his NRL team, when he’s on the park.
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But, beyond the contract talks that swirl around him on a continual basis and the occasional disinterest in playing representative football, is the fact he often struggles to stay on the park. Despite making his first grade debut in 2016, Ponga’s played just 132 games since.
So forgive me for not doing cartwheels about rumours the Palmerston North-raised playmaker might be eyeing up an opportunity in Super Rugby Pacific.
For starters, the Ponga camp have used an interest in rugby as a bargaining chip before. Good on them for that, given all’s fair in the world of contract negotiations.
Those tactics have certainly proved profitable in his case.
If I have an issue with Ponga it’s that, at the age of 26, he still remains promising. Despite having played in the NRL since his teens – and been among the better paid players in the competition – he’s never done anything nor won anything.
Say what you like about Benji Marshall, but at least when he came to the Blues it was on the back of having won an NRL title and captaining New Zealand to victory in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.
I’m not a fan of awards but, at one point in Marshall’s career, those who judge the Golden Boot named him the best rugby league player in the world.
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And how did rugby work out for him and how, for that matter, is it going for former Sydney Roosters back Joey Manu?
Now, I never took Manu’s departure to Japanese rugby at face value. It always appeared to me as a mechanism for the Roosters to temporarily get him off their books and I’d bet good money he’s back in Sydney before long.
So, when I read about Ponga and rugby, I’m afraid I tend to be sceptical of why those stories surface.
If he wants to be a Hurricane, for instance, go and play a few games for College Old Boys or Te Kawau in the Manawatu club competition. Get through a few wet Wednesday nights of NPC rugby with the Turbos and then tell me how interested you are in rugby.
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It’s easy to watch Super Rugby Pacific finals or All Blacks tests in Johannesburg and Paris and think ‘I fancy a bit of that’. The reality isn’t always so glamorous.
I always go back to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, whenever talks turns to league players coming to union.
Tuivasa-Sheck, to my mind, was an even better rugby league player than Marshall. Consistent,
diligent, humble, he was the epitome of a professional.
It’s just that he hadn’t played rugby in 10 years and that showed – and kept showing – each time he took the park for the Blues, All Blacks or Auckland.
I think most of us wanted him to do well, because of what an admirable guy he seemed. We all wished for his transition to rugby to be a success, but eventually had to concede that our eyes didn’t deceive us.
Tuivasa-Sheck was only an adequate rugby player and a return to league was best for everyone.
If we assume, even if it’s entirely for argument’s sake, that Ponga really does want to play rugby in New Zealand, I still wouldn’t entertain the idea of offering him a contract.
To me, he seems to be a guy who plays footy for a living a) because he can and b) because it pays well. If it’s heart’s really in it, the way it clearly was for Tuivasa-Sheck, I’m yet to see it.
Good luck to him and his family and to Newcastle. I hope it all works out for them and that Ponga can give the club value for money and win them the title they’ve craved since last winning in 2001.
What I’ll be more interested in seeing is how often, if at all, Queensland and Australia pick him again in the future.
Everything you read and hear from people such as Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga suggests they recognise and respect Ponga’s talent, they just can’t understand his wavering commitment to representative football.
When the people who coach and select him in those teams aren’t sure how genuine his interest in playing is, potential employers in New Zealand should take heed.
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Teams buying league players have to play them in the right positions…Tuivasa Sheck was absolutely wasted at 12…the only reason he played there is because that’s where the ABs were lightest and where he thought he could make the team. He should have been on the wing where his footwork and speed could have been most effective.
Hhhm, IDK Pye. When he started playing well (fullback), I actually think it was more his 12 skills, game awareness, positional and kicking strats, game transition/counter attack, that were his actual strengths when he actually started playing well in union, and not footwork or speed at all.
But yes, his chances may have been impacted by playing where he’d be of more use, rather than were he’d make his biggest/best impact (which would never have been enough to earn an AB spot if that had been wing, even fullback with the way ABs were coached would have been out of reach and maybe even never got a cap). Overall I’m actually happy with how/what chances he was given, and COVID had more of an effect than anything on his decision to give up/end it early.
Wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole? It would depend on how much the barge pole costs I reckon because he would def deserve at least a sniff
A well argued case which I agree with 100%+. Please SRP franchises, don’t take the flimsy, pongy, bait on offer here. Cheers for that.
I think RTS was voted best in NPC.
Oxymoron moron argument about Ponga’s success in league, that’s exactly the sort of reason he would try something else.
Typically pathetic article, he didn’t even have anything intelligent to say about his ability to play rugby, just typical loony theories. And that’s coming from someone pretty out their.
RTS was never named NPC Provincial Player of the Year.
Rugby should stop being so naive about league players. Union is much more specialised. RTS wasn’t fast enough for wing, not big enough for the midfield (he got injured when the Chiefs sent some 115 kg loosies down his channel at 2nd 5) and not good enough kicking out of hand for fullback or 1st 5. Ponga might be the same.
Personally I may have overstated/unappreciated the size of League players, yeah. Thinking RTS might be some 105kg rock in midfield.
to be fair to him, RTS was only in union for 2 years, and managed to get capped 3 times. Maybe those caps were premature; maybe he was never going to be a regular international starter; but I do think he could have been a useful squad player for the ABs if he had stuck at it.
Ponga made the same claim years ago, and 99% of the time nothing comes of it, except said player usually resigning for his NRL club for a bigger fee. Funny that.
Like RTS and Joey Manu, he’s leaving it too late to make a switch anyway. Should be done in their early 20s and at the start of a rugby world cup cycle, not heading towards 30 and already half-way there.
These sorta things take very specific scenarios to work, as union is not just going to throw massive amounts of money at them for it to be a easy decision (at least not NZR LOL).
That’s the thing, doing it then is one of those anti scenarios. Failing to switch then and he becomes a no name, he’s at least rammed home his advantage at the contract table now (you have to expect and account for being unlikely to make it as an AB, SBW had boxing for instance).
Agreed, it’s always badly timed, if it’s something you genuinely want a good crack at surely you would make sure you’re sorted fresh off a world cup to give yourself a full cycle