New Zealand Rugby should avoid a deal with Kalyn Ponga

I wouldn’t touch Kalyn Ponga with a barge pole.

The Newcastle Knights fullback certainly doesn’t lack ability. And can make a positive contribution to his NRL team, when he’s on the park.

But, beyond the contract talks that swirl around him on a continual basis and the occasional disinterest in playing representative football, is the fact he often struggles to stay on the park. Despite making his first grade debut in 2016, Ponga’s played just 132 games since. 

So forgive me for not doing cartwheels about rumours the Palmerston North-raised playmaker might be eyeing up an opportunity in Super Rugby Pacific.

For starters, the Ponga camp have used an interest in rugby as a bargaining chip before. Good on them for that, given all’s fair in the world of contract negotiations.

Those tactics have certainly proved profitable in his case.

If I have an issue with Ponga it’s that, at the age of 26, he still remains promising. Despite having played in the NRL since his teens – and been among the better paid players in the competition – he’s never done anything nor won anything.

Say what you like about Benji Marshall, but at least when he came to the Blues it was on the back of having won an NRL title and captaining New Zealand to victory in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.

I’m not a fan of awards but, at one point in Marshall’s career, those who judge the Golden Boot named him the best rugby league player in the world.

And how did rugby work out for him and how, for that matter, is it going for former Sydney Roosters back Joey Manu?

Now, I never took Manu’s departure to Japanese rugby at face value. It always appeared to me as a mechanism for the Roosters to temporarily get him off their books and I’d bet good money he’s back in Sydney before long.

So, when I read about Ponga and rugby, I’m afraid I tend to be sceptical of why those stories surface.

If he wants to be a Hurricane, for instance, go and play a few games for College Old Boys or Te Kawau in the Manawatu club competition. Get through a few wet Wednesday nights of NPC rugby with the Turbos and then tell me how interested you are in rugby.

It’s easy to watch Super Rugby Pacific finals or All Blacks tests in Johannesburg and Paris and think ‘I fancy a bit of that’. The reality isn’t always so glamorous.

I always go back to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, whenever talks turns to league players coming to union.
Tuivasa-Sheck, to my mind, was an even better rugby league player than Marshall. Consistent,
diligent, humble, he was the epitome of a professional.

It’s just that he hadn’t played rugby in 10 years and that showed – and kept showing – each time he took the park for the Blues, All Blacks or Auckland.

I think most of us wanted him to do well, because of what an admirable guy he seemed. We all wished for his transition to rugby to be a success, but eventually had to concede that our eyes didn’t deceive us.

Tuivasa-Sheck was only an adequate rugby player and a return to league was best for everyone.

If we assume, even if it’s entirely for argument’s sake, that Ponga really does want to play rugby in New Zealand, I still wouldn’t entertain the idea of offering him a contract.

To me, he seems to be a guy who plays footy for a living a) because he can and b) because it pays well. If it’s heart’s really in it, the way it clearly was for Tuivasa-Sheck, I’m yet to see it.

Good luck to him and his family and to Newcastle. I hope it all works out for them and that Ponga can give the club value for money and win them the title they’ve craved since last winning in 2001.

What I’ll be more interested in seeing is how often, if at all, Queensland and Australia pick him again in the future.

Everything you read and hear from people such as Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga suggests they recognise and respect Ponga’s talent, they just can’t understand his wavering commitment to representative football.

When the people who coach and select him in those teams aren’t sure how genuine his interest in playing is, potential employers in New Zealand should take heed.