READY TO REPRESENT
NORTH Queenslanders Kalyn Ponga and Dane Gagai are expected to star for the Maori All Stars in the first game against the Indigenous All Stars. Gagai will become the first man to be selected as a representative for both teams on Friday night, while former North Queensland Cowboys player, Ponga, has already shown his class.
FROM bitter rivals to best of mates? Not quite, say Latrell Mitchell and Will Chambers.
After 12 months of unforgiving battles, Mitchell and Chambers are in camp this week as teammates for the Indigenous All Stars ahead of their clash with the Maori All Stars in Melbourne on Friday.
The on-field rivalry between the two was one of the highlights of last season but any serious conflict begins, and ends, when they cross the white line.
Chambers, long regarded as the game’s best centre before his showdowns with Mitchell, said talk of any genuine hatred between the two was overblown, revealing they met for a beer following Melbourne’s win over the Roosters in Adelaide last year just days after Origin II.
“We don’t hate each other. You can see it for 80 minutes on the field and that’s it. You don’t need to pump up that you hate someone or that you’re not mates,” Chambers said.
“Because we don’t get on on the footy field everyone automatically assumes you aren’t mates.
“When you’re in the fighting ring, a boxing match or a footy game you’re not going to be best mates but as soon as it’s all said and done you sit down and have a beer together and stuff like that.”
Mitchell admitted things were a little awkward at first but before long the two loosened up.
“I had to feel my way into having a yarn, getting out of my comfort zone and going over to say hello to him,” Mitchell said.
“I didn’t feel the need to bring what we have on the field off it.”
Mitchell has now eclipsed Chambers as rugby league’s top centre following his form for the Roosters, NSW and Australia last season.
The 21-year-old got the better of Chambers in the Origin series and the grand final but he’s happy enough to leave the bravado on the field.
In a classic case of styles making fights, Chambers’ aggression, intensity and willingness to push the envelope brings out the best in Mitchell, who said the Melbourne and Queensland stalwart helped take him to the next level.
“He’s a competitor, he brings the game and he takes the tough carries. He’s a leader of his team and I like playing against him cause he sharpens me up,” Mitchell said.
“I love that competitiveness, especially in my opposite number. I really enjoy those battles, it makes me stay in the game and it gets me going.”
Chambers, 30, is full of praise for his new teammate, labelling Mitchell “probably the best centre in the game at the moment.”
“For a long time I battled with a lot of people, but he was a guy who made sure my hands were full,” Chambers said.
“It’s good, I dare say we’ll have a couple more battles this year and maybe next year if I’m still around.”
Mitchell will start at left centre in Friday’s clash. Chambers will come off the bench.
It promises to be an exciting match to kick off to the 2019 season and Chambers believes replacing the old World All Stars with the Maori will only heighten the spectacle and occasion of the fixture.
“Talking to the boys from the All Stars, they didn’t have a heap of meaning to it. They had a heap of great players, but they didn’t have a meaning to it,” he said.
“The Maori boys have the same purpose as us. They’re playing for their culture, their people.
“It’s two cultures playing each other.”