31 Jan 2015

Sport:Nines tournament a chance for Cook Island players to shine

12:05 pm on 31 January 2015

The Cook Islands are using today's Cabramatta Nines rugby league tournament as a chance to develop the next generation of Kuki's internationals.

The team is largely based in New South Wales and includes players on the books of the Canterbury Bulldogs and Melbourne Storm NRL teams.

Team advisor and coaching mentor Nga Turia says the Cook Islands have been entering a team into the Cabramatta event for the past decade.

"This is where I am looking at also as a recruitment officer and development officer I basically look at players and see how they progress throughout the year 2015. We've got a couple of experienced players in there that's played for numerous years and they're the ones who're actually going to guide the newer and younger players through. We try to develop our young ones and prepare them for tests against other nations and [the] World Cup, which is the big one".

The Cook Islands are in the same pool as last year's runners up, the Philippines, Portugal and a local club Blacktown Workers.

Samoa, Fiji, Niue, American Samoa and Papua New Guinea are also competing in today's event