Indigenous defeat Maori

The New Zealand Maori couldn’t hold onto a narrow lead as they lost 26-34 to the Australian Indigenous side in an entertaining curtain-raiser to tonight’s official opening match of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup at the Sydney Football Stadium.

After trailing 14-22, the Maori recovered to lead 26-22 through tries to Gold Coast winger Jordan Rapana and Melbourne-bound former Bulldogs standoff Arana Taumata.

With nine minutes left they were still holding that advantage but the Indigenous team, featuring a number of big-name NRL players, regained the advantage as Penrith fullback Rhys Wesser scorched across for his second try.

With St George Illawarra’s Jamie Soward converting the home side was 28-26 ahead and stretched that with a try right on fulltime to South Sydney’s Yileen Gordon.

The Maori went into the match with a line-up that included former Kiwi prop Craig Smith. Smith, who turns 37 next Friday (October 31), hadn’t played a game at any level since retiring from the NRL after his 2006 campaign with Newcastle.

Despite that, he started against an Australian Indigenous side which, apart from Wesser and Soward, also included well-established players like Ty Williams, Preston Campbell and Carl Webb.

As well as Smith, the Maori had other former Kiwis in centre Chase Stanley, winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall and second rower Wairangi Koopu.

They began the match superbly when huge Penrith prop Sam McKendry, a Junior Kiwi last year, hit a short ball to score.

Kenny-Dowall also soared brilliantly to snare a last-tackle bomb for a try in the 25th minute but the Indigenous line-up had a 16-8 halftime lead through three tries.

When Stanley neatly snared a Soward pass to race 80 metres for a try, the Maori were just 14-16 down only to concede a second try to former North Queensland utility Rod Jensen.

Then came the dizzy phase in the last 21 minutes when the Maori went ahead but couldn’t hold on, a period when four tries were scored.

While big names were dotted through both sides, there were also a couple of very big ones on the field acting as runners – Cliff Lyons for the Indigenous team and Richie Blackmore for the Maori.

Match details:

At Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney
New Zealand Maori 26 (Sam McKendry, Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Chase Stanley, Jordan Rapana, Arana Taumata tries; Bronx Goodwin 2 conversions; Chase Stanley conversion).
Australian Indigenous Team 34 (Rhys Wesser 2, Rod Jensen 2, Jason Carney, Yileen Gordon tries; Jamie Soward 5 conversions).
Halftime: 16-8 Indigenous Team.
Referee:  Tony Archer (Australia).