Kiwis Link With Sponsor Kooga To Spread Word

Kiwis Link With Sponsor Kooga To Spread Word At Top Gold Coast School

Gold Coast, Australia, May 4, 2011 –

Kiwi captain Benji Marshall was on enemy territory when he joined coach Stephen Kearney, team-mates Lance Hohaia, Nathan Fien and Lewis Brown plus legend Ruben Wiki on a Kooga-sponsored school visit yesterday.

The sextet was at Palm Beach Currumbin High School, a fierce rival for Marshall’s Keebra Park State High School when he was mapping out a future that would take him to sporting stardom.

Palm Beach Currumbin High produced injured Kiwi winger Sam Perrett as well as St George Illawarra’s Darius Boyd and Melbourne back rower Kevin Proctor who was in contention to make the Kiwis for Friday night’s Anzac Test at Skilled Park. Ben Hannant, on the bench for the Kangaroos on Friday night, also went to the school

As an ambassador for the Kiwis’ apparel sponsor KooGa, Marshall and his colleagues spent an hour in front of more than sixty pupils studying rugby league in Palm Beach Currumbin High’s sports excellence programme. Among the students was Perrett’s younger brother.

The Kiwi contingent fielded a full range of questions – many about Friday night’s Test – while also constantly taking the opportunity to hand out advice to the youngsters with dreams of becoming rugby league professionals. Many of the pupils, like Marshall, are eligible to play for New Zealand in the future and he urged them to remember their heritage.

After signing autographs, posing for photos and doing a media call the Kiwi group was later at Pizzey Park in Burleigh for the team’s first full-scale training session ahead of the Test. After having a walk-through on Monday, the intensity was ramped up for the 19 players in the squad.

This morning the Kiwis have changed training venues and will run at The Southport School, just north of the team’s location at the Sofitel in Broadbeach.
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