Pride on line for Breakers

‘‘I really feel it’s their [promoters Duco Events] concept. They started it so if it’s not broken why fix it,’’ Hayne said at the captain’s press conference.

‘‘We came here yesterday straight to see the fans at one of the local grounds and it’s great to see so many come out. We were there with the Broncos boys, the Tigers boys, and seeing different fans was awesome.

‘‘With New Zealand only having one team, to bring all the teams out here to celebrate the end of preseason, everyone loves playing Nines and it’s about having fun.’’

Hayne’s support for Auckland was was echoed by North Queensland captain Gavin Cooper, who hopes the addition of the former San Francisco 49er and his Cowboys team-mate Johnathan Thurston will help boost crowd numbers.

Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney have been mentioned as possible hosts but Cooper believes there is room for more than one Nines event. Although he would rather they be held in emerging league areas.

‘‘I’d like for it to travel around, maybe three weeks - one here, one in Darwin and one in Perth,’’ the back-rower said.

‘‘Three Nines weekends would be pretty cool. I don’t know if the coaches are in for it but the players would have a lot of fun.’’

Kiwi league legend Ruben Wiki is obviously partial to keeping the tournament in New Zealand.

But as he prepares to come out of retirement and lead the Warriors this weekend, the appeal of the tournament to young fans in particular has really hit home.

‘‘We did the club visits and the Kiwi kids to get rub shoulders with their heroes in the NRL,’’ Wiki said.

‘‘We’re trying to grow the game here in New Zealand and I think the Nines spectacle being here is the best thing for the game.’’

By far one of the biggest drawcards is Hayne, whose popularity skyrocketed off his move to the NFL in 2015.

The 28-year-old also had a brief stint with the Fijian rugby sevens team before signing with Titans at the back-end of season.

After a gruelling a off-season he’s hoping to reap the rewards at Eden Park.

‘‘It has been pretty tough, every pre-season is tough and not that enjoyable,’’ Hayne said. ‘‘The Nines celebrates the end of preseason and the start of business so I’m looking forward to having fun.’’ the last

Hayne leads a Titans squad with a blend of youth and experience. But while tipping his former club Parramatta as a strong contender, he says the event is a lottery. ‘‘It’s nine minutes - if you get the bounce of the ball, anything can happen.

‘‘What I’ve been telling my guys is to go out there, play for each other and when it starts to hurt, try to stay up, because it’ll start to hurt early.’’ It was probably a good thing that fiery Breakers coach Paul Henare spent the bulk of this week out of Auckland attending a high performance coach’s seminar in the capital.

Both he and his embattled team probably needed a bit of space after recent events.

Following the embarrassing 84-57 defeat to the Kings in Sydney last Sunday, leaving his team’s ANBL playoff hopes on life support, Henare let his team have it with a brutal assessment of what was easily their worst performance of the season.

‘‘All I can think about right now is how embarrassed I am for my club,’’ Henare reflected after a woeful 25-turnover performance against the undermanned Kings. ‘‘I’m disgusted in what we put on the floor.

‘‘I don’t know if we can put that behind us. There are too many things there ... there is an underlying quit in us right now. When things get tough I saw a lot of quit out there and that’s concerning. If we go on to Adelaide next week and perform like that we’ll lose by 50.’’

The Breakers players have had the week to chew on those words, and Henare (back with the team) has had the distance to reflect on how they might best approach two remaining games, starting in Adelaide tonight (7.30pm, NZT), that are as much about restoring pride as they are trying to conjure something magical out of an unlikely playoff scenario.

The best the Breakers can manage now is a 14-14 finish by somehow lowering minor premiers Adelaide at their house and then backing up with a home victory over Melbourne in their regular season finale next Friday night.

That could − at a stretch − sneak them into the fourth and final playoff spot, providing a complicated series of results elsewhere fall their way.

But right now the Breakers are thinking only of the obligation they have to show some backbone in a tricky visit to Joey Wright’s high-flying Sixers.