‘All love’: the All Blacks inspiring NZ’s league aces

Darren Walton | October 15, 2026

Buoyed by a visit from their All Blacks brothers, Stacey Jones’s ambitious Kiwis are out to open the rugby league World Cup with a bang by completing a memorable New Zealand double over Australia.

Five days after the All Blacks crushed the Wallabies 50-19 to clinch the Bledisloe Cup for a 23rd straight year, the Kiwis and Kangaroos clash in a trans-Tasman blockbuster in Sydney on Thursday night to kick off the global showpiece.

Eight ABs, including superstar winger Will Jordan and playmaker Cam Roigard, cast aside the cross-code rivalry to drop into New Zealand’s captain’s run on Wednesday and throw their support behind Jones’s side.

“It’s just all love and supporting each other and hopefully we can go watch their game on Saturday too, so it’s pretty special,” New Zealand captain James Fisher-Harris said.

“How dominant and how they go about their business and represent New Zealand, there’s a lot of things that they do that we look up to so yeah, it’s pretty cool.”

Leading what he believes is “potentially” the best Kiwi forward pack ever, Fisher-Harris says “the plan” is to lift the World Cup and, like the Warriors, continue to inspire a whole new generation of rugby league players back in their homeland just like the 2008 winners did.

“When they won in 2008, I was watching Blairy (Adam Blair) and that, (Nathan) Cayless and obviously Benji (Marshall), so that made me want to go down this path,” the enforcer said.

“So hopefully we can do something like that. When you are successful like that, it gets you motivated and you want to play for a certain team or a certain code.

“So that’s the plan anyways, to be successful in this World Cup.”

Behind the monster pack will be Kayln Ponga for the first time after the talismanic fullback, at 28, opted to represent his parents’ homeland.

“He’s playing pretty good right about now,” Fisher-Harris said of Ponga, who led Newcastle on their magical run from seventh to a 19-18 grand final loss to the Sydney Roosters.

“But it’s not just his playing ability, it’s his leadership and he’s been in the game for a while now.

“He’s won a few things but it looks like he’s pretty keen to get in that black and white jersey.”

Coach Stacey Jones also believes Australia’s loss is very much New Zealand’s gain.

“For the Knights this year and particularly the back end of the season, he carried them to a grand final,” Jones said.

“Obviously had a lot of support around him, but he’s got a lot of confidence in his game at the moment and we’re just lucky that we’ve got him on our side.”