By Richard Cowley, Date: 12/10/12
Australia and New Zealand will continue their long standing rivalry this Saturday night at Dairy Farmers Stadium in Townsville. The game is officially a sell out with North Queenslanders taking a rare opportunity to see the best two rugby league nations in the World.
There has been much talk about both teams using the test match as preparation for next years World Cup. The main fall-out from a loss or major score-line blowout to either side could be a change in the coaching ranks before next years World Cup with both Tim Sheens and Steve Kearney under some pressure.
The weather is going to work against the Kiwis with forecasts showing it could be as high as 28 degrees celsius come kick-off time.
New Zealand have struggled in the one off tests against Australia and will need to produce something special if they are going to reverse the trend on Saturday night.
Channel 9 will telecast the game live on Saturday starting from 7.30pm AESDT. The game will also be broadcast live into Melbourne with those based in Adelaide and Perth able to watch the game on delay.
Australian Squad
1. Billy Slater
2. Darius Boyd
3. Greg Inglis
4. Josh Morris
5. Brett Morris
6. Johnathan Thurston
7. Cooper Cronk
8. Nate Myles
9. Paul Gallen
10. Greg Bird
11. James Tamou
12. Cameron Smith
13. Matthew Scott
14. Robbie Farah
15. Ryan Hoffman
16. David Shillington
17. Tony Williams
18. Ben Te’o
New Zealand Squad
1. Josh Hoffman
2. Sam Perrett
3. Krisnan Inu
4. Dean Whare
5. Gerard Beale
6. Benji Marshall
7. Kieran Foran
8. Simon Mannering
9. Kevin Proctor
10.Frank Pritchard
11. Sam Kasiano
12. Issac Luke
13.Jesse Bromwich
14. Greg Eastwood
15. Ben Matulino
16. Elijah Taylor
17. Adam Blair
