NEW Zealand head coach Michael Maguire has confirmed a difficult decision has been made on Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
The Sydney Roosters enforcer was banned for the Kiwis’ win over Fiji last week, but he has been struggling with a hamstring injury.
Now Maguire has revealed that Waerea-Hargreaves will not feature against Australia, but will return if New Zealand make the World Cup final.
“He won’t play this week, but he will be available the week after,” Maguire said.
“It is a really tough decision. He is working and he trained really hard today, but we are just planning for what is ahead.”
The Kiwis continue to be written off against Australia, but Maguire is confident in his players that they can get the job done tomorrow night at Elland Road.
“At the end of the day I’ve got a good group of players and a good group of men.
“We have spoken about how we want to go about things as a team and there is a great focus. This is the next step to achieve what we have spoken about.”
The 19-man squad is as follows:
Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Jesse Bromwich, Kenny Bromwich, Dylan Brown, James Fisher-Harris, Kieran Foran, Peta Hiku, Jahrome Hughes, Isaac Liu, Joseph Manu, Ronaldo Mulitalo, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Briton Nikora, Isaiah Papali’i, Jordan Rapana, Brandon Smith, Joseph Tapine, Scott Sorensen, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.
