Kiwi flavour to NYC grand final

Canberra and Wests Tigers have named unchanged line-ups for Sunday’s NYC grand final at ANZ Stadium (4.00pm kick-off NZ time; live on SKY Sport 2).

The Raiders, who finished third in the regular season, reached the decider by beating the second-ranked Vodafone Junior Warriors 39-38 in week one and pounding St George Illawarra (8) 44-16 last week.

They’ll be bidding to join the Vodafone Junior Warriors as the only club to win the premiership twice, having claimed the inaugural title in their only other grand final appearance in 2008.

The Tigers are also in the grand final for the second time having lost to Melbourne in 2009. Finishing fourth in the regular season, they started their 2012 finals campaign by upsetting minor premier Canterbury-Bankstown 24-20 in week one and toppling the Sydney Roosters 28-22 last week.

Canberra’s side includes New Zealand-born players Jeremy Hawkins, Anthony Milford, Michael Chee Kam and Uiti Baker while the Tigers have a Kiwi flavour in Kurtis Rowe, Inno Inosesio and Soni Paasi as well as Manaia Rudolph, who has been included on an eight-man bench. A Northcote Tigers junior out of Mahurangi College, Rudolph finished the regular season as the NYC’s top points-scorer with 216 points; when the Tigers swamped the Vodafone Junior Warriors 54-12 in May, Rudolph scored 26 points from three tries and seven goals.

The Tigers will field two players with NRL experience – winger Marika Koroibete and halfback Jacob Miller – while Canberra has one in centre Edrick Lee.

Both teams are coached by former players with lengthy careers, Canberra guided by Andrew Dunneman who played for Gold Coast, North Queensland, South Sydney and Canberra as well as playing extensively for Halifax, Leeds and Salford in England. Todd Payten is in his first year of coaching, finishing his long playing career with Wests Tigers last season after previously serving Canberra and the Sydney Roosters.

TOYOTA CUP GRAND FINAL

4.00pm (NZ time), Sunday, September 30
ANZ Stadium, Homebush
Referee: Grant Atkins

CANBERRA

1 Jack Ahearn
2 Jonathan Reuben
3 Matthew Allwood
4 Edrick Lee
5 Jeremy Hawkins
6 Anthony Milford
7 Mitchell Cornish (c)
8 Shannon Boyd
9 Ben Picker
10 Jeff Lynch
11 Michael Chee Kam
12 Joe Bradley
13 Hayden Crockett
Interchange:
14 Mitchell Cronin
16 Tim Sloman
17 Uiti Baker
20 Jeremy Cropper

Coach: Andrew Dunemann

WESTS TIGERS

1 Kurtis Rowe
2 David Nofoaluma
3 Brodie Monroe
4 Asipeli Fine
5 Marika Koroibete
6 Matt Mulcahy
7 Jacob Miller ( c )
8 Sauaso Sue
9 Ben Saunders
10 Mosese Fotuaika
11 Joel Luani
12 Kyle Lovett
13 Inno Inosesio
Interchange:
14 Soni Paasi
15 Nathan Brown
16 Brenden Santi
17 Sitaleki Akauola
18 Shane Lalogafau
19 Andy Fiagatusa
20 Manaia Rudolph
22 Daniel Rakvin

Coach: Todd Payten