Cook Islands’ head coach, Anthony ‘Rusty’ Tamati Matua believes his experience will be instrumental in the Cook Islands’ chances of success at the 2022 Rugby League World Cup.
Cook Islands enter their group as major underdogs, facing Australia, New Zealand and France.
Cook Islands finished their preparations for the tournament on Thursday with a 26-14 warm-up match victory against England Knights, in Leeds.
Rusty believes following a positive result, they are in a good position “Our objective was to get everybody good minutes and we managed to achieve that, the bonus was to get the win”.
Matua has been about the game for many years, including being a member the coaching team on the 2013 New Zealand Ferns, who made it all the way to the final.
That experience is something he hopes can help this team “The girls have a lot of respect for my knowledge, and football IQ, and they know that I can give them the tools and support they need”.
Cook Islands enter the group stages in a group with Australia, New Zealand and France, making them group underdogs.
Rusty is not willing to go down without a fight though “Our goal is to upset one of the big dogs. We could be looking at is as lambs to the slaughter, or we could be thankful that it is a blessing to be on the world stage”.
After the game, Cook Islands vice-captain and halfback, Kimiora Braeyley-Nati, backed up what her head coach said “We’re all blessed to have Rusty on-board, he brings a lot of knowledge, he knows the game really well and I think that he’s doing a really good job at the moment.
Braeyley-Nati was not the only player to emphasise the impact rusty has had. Hooker, Mireka Dean, said “His vision has given us lots of confidence in him, we are trusting his decisions and just following through what his visions are”.
Cook Islands kick of their world cup campaign against world number one, and defending champions, Australia. The match will take place in York on the 2nd of November.
