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Kangaroos gun Valentine Holmes has revealed a desire to play for Queensland was all that stopped him committing to New Zealand as a teenager.
Holmes was picked in a New Zealand train-on squad in his rookie NRL season in 2014 when he was still mostly playing under-20s.
The Cowboys star, who was born in Townsville but father is a Kiwi, admitted he almost defected so he could play alongside the likes of Benji Marshall.
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But it was Holmes’ determination to play Origin and represent the Maroons which proved the deciding factor.
“I got picked in the train-on squad when I was playing 20s and I had a talk to my dad,” Holmes said.
“I was close to going because it was a train-on squad and I was only in the junior Kangaroos so I was thinking maybe I’ll run around with Benji Marshall, they had a lot of cool Kiwi NRL players.
“But I think I made the right decision, I’ve had a pretty good rep career for Queensland and Australia and that was the only reason – so I could play for Queensland as well.
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“You can’t play Origin when you play for New Zealand and I got lucky enough to play for Australia.
“Half my family would be pretty happy with me pulling the black jersey but they’re all still very happy though with me playing for Australia and Origin.”
Holmes has been picked on the wing for Australia’s World Cup semi-final against New Zealand on Saturday AEDT.
Nathan Cleary had a tough night off the tee in the quarterfinal against Lebanon, but sharp shooter Holmes said he won’t replace him this week.
“They’re real heavy tracks here, back home we’ve got some pretty good fields but some here have been really sloppy, one was probably the worst field I’ve played on,” he said.
“I’m not saying it’s an excuse but it is hard to kind of get your run up and strike from the sideline when you’re on a heavy track after also playing footy as well.
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“When I hit him at training they’re not too bad for me but I use the taller tee, whereas Nath uses a smaller one so you’ve probably got to hit it a bit cleaner to get going.
“It’s obviously not nice missing a few. This week it’s going to be a closer game I imagine so we’re probably going to need to go up in sixes if we can.
“I’m there for Nath if he needs it and we’ve also got Latrell, so we’ve got some quality goalkickers willing to put their hands up but at the moment it’s Nath’s job.”
Holmes revealed Cleary offered him to take over goal-kicking duties after missing several conversions earlier in the tournament.
“He spoke to me in the game against Italy, just asked me if I wanted to take over because he missed the first one or two and probably wasn’t all that confident,” he said.
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“But I said to him just keep going because it’s going to play with your head more if you bail now after missing two and he ended up kicking another eight or something.
“When he’s playing well it’s when he’s confident.
“I don’t feel like it’s something you should do mid-game unless you’re literally missing like five in a row but like it’s you know, we’re a team we’re all quality players and quality kickers and I think someone should be sacked for missing a couple goals.”
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