Hape: Rugby league match bigger than Auld Enemy clash

The World Cup clash between England and Scotland is hugely important but fails to match the significance of the Warriors bid to become the first New Zealand winners of Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL), England centre Shontayne Hape said yesterday.

Hape, a former Warriors player who was born in New Zealand before moving to England and switching codes, watched on Saturday as his former team beat the Melbourne Storm to reach the NRL final, a feat that has dominated talk around Auckland all week.

The match finished shortly after New Zealand’s beloved All Blacks had beaten France in a 60,000 sell out clash at Eden Park in another all conquering display at the World Cup, the biggest sporting event the country has hosted.

However, the All Blacks’ achievement in beating their old World Cup rivals failed to dominate local newspaper headlines as normal, with fans racing to snap up tickets for Sunday’s NRL final in Sydney across the Tasman sea. And Hape was another looking forward to watching the Warriors take on the Manly Sea Eagles but only after England attempt to get the two points they require against Scotland to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

“Obviously we have a big game this week but they have an even bigger one so I’ll be watching them on Sunday,” said Hape.

“After we played (on Saturday) we saw a bit of the All Blacks game and then quickly shot down to watch the Warriors, who are in fantastic form.

“I went to their last home game so it’s obviously just an amazing feeling for them.”

While Hape and most New Zealanders are desperate for the team to win the NRL final, the England midfielder acknowledged he had another game to be thinking about.

England lead Pool B on 14 points after three consecutive wins with Argentina and Scotland on 10 points as the trio vie for the two quarter-final spots available.

Argentina are expected to take five points from their final clash against Georgia on Sunday and, should Scotland beat England, they could eliminate their old rivals.

Hape said he was looking forward to the challenge of the early elimination scenario and was only thinking of victory against Scotland.

“The boys are real pumped up, Scotland is going to be a massive game, our last pool game.

“It is quite fantastic really, any of the three teams can go through. So it’s going to be a cracking game.

“We need to win, there is no point worrying how many points we are on, we just need to go out and win.”