NZRL Continue Support For Rising Star

Up and coming league star Benji Marshall has been named in the Australian Schoolboys team, but New Zealand Rugby League officials are refusing to give up on his long term future.

Marshall is the talk of the NRL after encouraging performances for the Wests Tigers.

He has been living in Australia for the past 2 of years, so has gone with their schoolboy team.

NZRL high performance manager Duanne Mann says there are certainly good chances players like Benji Marshall can still play for New Zealand later on.

Mann says Marshall has told him he is a Kiwi through and through, so it is a case of keeping watch on him for the future, but Kiwi officials will not be making any moves to convince him to pledge his allegiance just yet.

Mann says there is a precedent.

He says the Cayless brothers played for Australian schoolboys and then went onto make the Kiwis.

Marshall has played for the New Zealand Under 16 rugby union team before moving to Australia 18 months ago.