However, the team once known, in the mists of pre-Super League history, as the Steam Pigs do not have that look about them.* New Zealand will try to break a 46-year drought today by beating Australia in Sydney for the first time since 1959 in the opening match of the Tri-Nations. The one British-based player in the Kiwi side, Wakefield's David Solomona, appears for the first time since 2002 and admits that he thought his international career was over.* The former Wigan coach, John Monie, takes charge of France for the first time today in their match against Russia in the European Nations Cup. That competition continues tomorrow, when Wales play Scotland.. From the very first, Andrew Dunemann's English career, which may or may not come to an end with today's Super League Grand Final, has been full of surprises. In 1999 he was a young half-back, disillusioned with life at South Sydney. "I wasn't enjoying playing, I wasn't enjoying anything and my manager set it up for me to go to St Helens." That deal fell through while he was in the air and, instead of Saints meeting him at the airport, the Halifax coach, Gary Mercer, was waiting. Dunemann joined a club which had exceeded all expectations by finishing third in Super League the previous season. "But that was what got us into problems, because the players were on a cumulative bonus of about £3,000 a match."Dunemann was a stand-out player at a club going down the tubes fast and, in 2002, there was talk of him joining Castleford.
"Gary Hetherington at Leeds must have thought I might be available and he gave me a ring." It was a surprising signing because Leeds already had three of the finest home-grown midfield talents in Kevin Sinfield, Danny McGuire, Rob Burrow. Where did a journeyman Aussie dovetail with that lot? Just about everywhere. Apart from being left out of last season's Grand Final, Dunemann has been a fixture in a Rhinos team that has finally learned how to win things."It was tough to take last year, but I'd injured my groin in the semi-final and I probably wasn't right to play. I still felt I'd played my part and I was happy to see the guys win.
When I first came here, the club wasn't achieving what it should have done. Turning that around has been a combination of the young blokes coming through and getting the imports right - not just going for the big names."Dunemann himself hardly sounds as a big-name import. In fact, his name has caused enough confusion for him to have appeared memorably in print as Andrew Sand Dune Man. He has, however, been highly influential, often providing the steadying fulcrum at half-back around which the likes of Sinfield, McGuire and Burrow can revolve.Perhaps his biggest contribution has been in playing an unfamiliar role for much of this season. When the Rhinos hooker Matt Diskin pulled his knee apart playing for Great Britain last autumn, Leeds scoured the world for a replacement.
