Kiwis booked to come home early
AUCKLAND - New Zealand rugby league team captain Jesse Bromwich says it's disrespectful that they've already been booked to leave the Rugby League World Cup following this weekend's semifinal against Australia in Leeds.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that before the tournament started organisers were forced to make predictions on when teams would be eliminated to help with travel logistics.
The Kiwis are the team that the organisers have scheduled to leave the day after the showdown with favourites Australia.
“It's pretty disrespectful for it to be published like that, it's not on,” Bromwich said.
“We spoke about it as a group and we want to control what we can control and outside noise shouldn't be affecting us at this time of the tournament, preparation should be the main thing on our mind at the moment.
However the front rower did say it gave the players a bit of spark at training today.
“I think we used it for a good training session today, but it's gone now.
“We've got enough motivation in this team and enough pride in the jumper to not need that outside noise, we want this (tournament sucess) more than anyone.”
The Sydney Morning Herald report says if the Kiwis were to upset the reigning champions on Saturday morning, it will cost tournament officials $380 per ticket to change the flights.
Organisers had reportedly been forced to fork out around $10,000 when Samoa knocked out Tonga in the quarter-finals over the weekend, after originally banking on Tonga progressing to the semis.