Kiwis coach keeps his options open

Dallin Watene-Zelezniak may have replaced Jared Waerea-Hargreaves in the Kiwis squad for this weekend’s World Cup quarterfinal against Fiji, but it’s still anyone’s guess on what the team will look like.

Swapping a winger for a prop isn’t the usual way of doing things, but Kiwis coach Michael Maguire has reluctantly followed the other coaches at the World Cup with his team announcements.

It’s the normal way in the NRL for coaches to name their starting and bench players a few days before games, and that’s what Maguire had done during the pool stage of this tournament.

However, for the quarterfinal, he has done the same as other coaches and listed his squad alphabetically.

‘‘I don’t like it, I like the way we do it [in the NRL],’’ Maguire said.

‘‘But it’s about making sure you protect every opportunity for your team, to be able to go out there and put the right people out there.

‘‘I guess if that’s the path we want to take, that’s the one we’ve gone down. We’ll keep people having a look at the team and working out which way they want to go.’’

Given that there are 24 players in World Cup squads and WaereaHargreaves is suspended, it does make squad namings less than newsworthy as only Moses Leota, Marata Niukore, Sebastian Kris and Jeremy Marshall-King are officially ruled out.

Maguire did confirm Jordan Rapana would be the team’s goal kicker against Fiji. Rapana went two from four last weekend against Ireland and Dylan Brown was two from six.

Watene-Zelezniak and Kieran Foran have also taken goal kicks during the World Cup, with mixed results, but it will be the Raiders star who gets the nod.

‘‘Obviously, it was a talking point from the last game. We gave Dylan Brown a bit of a go, to make sure we had a bit of a backup,’’ Maguire said.

‘‘Jordan Rapana has been kicking quite well. We’ve scored a few tries out on the edges, which is nice from an attacking point of view, but as a goal kicker, they’re the challenges.’’