Birthday boy vows to play better football
NATHAN Cleary’s 25th birthday brought with it plenty of stick from his teammates and an admission that he is yet to play his best footy at the World Cup.
Cleary, speaking immediately before the Kangaroos conducted a combined training session with the Sale Sharks at the rugby union club’s headquarters, will arrive at Old Trafford on Saturday night with plenty of expectation on his shoulders.
None more than he puts on himself. Since being given the Australian halfback job by coach Mal Meninga, he has ground out two solid performances without taking the reins.
He has done enough for Australia to win and to secure his place – but not enough to suggest he has taken complete ownership of the Kangaroos.
Meninga is set to retain faith heading into Saturday night (AEDT) and Cleary wants to reward him.
“I haven’t thought about external pressure,” Cleary said.
“It’s more internally, being able to get the best out of myself and push myself to do that. I feel like I do belong and feel like I’ve got a long way to go to play my best footy but I’m doing everything I can to prepare well and try and get my best game out this weekend.
“The last few games haven’t been my best but I feel like I’ve been building. Coming into a new team it’s pretty hard to jell straight away with new combinations …. but I feel like we’re building.
“Within a team like this you don’t need to be the superstar every week – you can try and unlock other players and jell really well as a team.”
There is a school of thought that Cleary has battled with being out of his comfort zone, although he appeared more authoritative at training on Monday night (AEDT).
He needs to be, because he knows full well that good mate Jarome Luai will fulfil that role with Samoa.
“It is exciting,” Cleary said. “We come up against each other a lot at training all the time. It is obviously different now it is a World Cup grand final. But we are both competitive so I am sure that will come out on the weekend. He is their star player, he has been killing it. We’re going to have to do our homework on him.”