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Maori keen to take All Stars game to NZ

3 minute read

Maori All Stars forward Adam Blair says it would be "the ultimate" to one day have the chance to host the NRL's annual curtain-raiser in New Zealand.

ADAM BLAIR of the Warriors reacts during the NRL match between the New Zealand Warriors and the Wests Tigers at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand.
ADAM BLAIR of the Warriors reacts during the NRL match between the New Zealand Warriors and the Wests Tigers at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. Picture: Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images

Maori All Stars forward Adam Blair would relish the chance to take the NRL's annual pre-season match to New Zealand one day.

Blair and his Maori teammates assembled on the Gold Coast on Monday ahead of the second clash between their team and the Indigenous All Stars in a format which revitalised the concept last year.

After being played in Melbourne 12 months ago - with the Maori outfit replacing the World All Stars who had contested the previous seven fixtures - Saturday's match will be held at Robina's Cbus Super Stadium, the venue of the inaugural All Stars match in 2010.

NZ Warriors forward Blair said he would love to one day see the game take place across the Tasman.

"That should be the ultimate for NZ Maori, to be able to one day bring the Australian Indigenous boys back to New Zealand to show them the way we live and breathe our culture," Blair told AAP.

"I understand with the Indigenous boys there's a hundred different languages but with us we all speak the same language, we all have the same formalities, our culture's exactly the same throughout New Zealand. Throughout our schools it's taught so from a one-year-old or when you go to daycare or kindy it's in your system from day dot."

NZ Maori coach David Kidwell also backed the idea of taking the match to New Zealand, saying it would be a great chance for his team to repay the hospitality they had received over the past two years.

"One day definitely, that's the vision of it," Kidwell said.

"We'd pack out a stadium definitely in New Zealand and we'd like to reciprocate the welcome that we get here. Take them back to our family."

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