Kangaroos to unleash Storm in Townsville Test against New Zealand

KANGAROOS players are auditioning for World Cup positions as they adopt Melbourne's premiership masterplan to strangle the life out of New Zealand.

AUSTRALIA coach Tim Sheens has told Kangaroos players they are auditioning for World Cup positions as they adopt Melbourne's premiership masterplan to strangle the life out of New Zealand in Saturday's end-of-season Test.

They might be wearing different colours and instructed by different coaches, but the Townsville Test is shaping as a grand-final rematch with the Storm's star trio of Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater the conductors of the Australian attack while the Kiwis have five Canterbury players from the vanquished grand finalists.

Australian props Matt Scott and David Shillington made no secret of the game plan yesterday, adding Sheens had warned them 2013 World Cup positions were already on the line.

"Tim has mentioned the World Cup already - this being a little bit of an audition and lead-in to that," Shillington said. "We've got this game and the Anzac Test next year and hopefully we can have some success now and keep the same sort of squad and keep Tim as the coach leading into the World Cup.

"If you take a game lightly like this you will get pretty embarrassed. They've got a good team. They're big and have plenty of experience with seven players in the grand final so they'll be raring to go."

Both teams have arrived in North Queensland early to acclimatise to the oppressive heat. The Kiwis will train in Cairns until tomorrow while the Australians are in the heart of Townsville with some players even enjoying a day trip to Magnetic Island yesterday.

However at morning training it was all business and Scott said the Australians were keen to copy the Storm game plan which effectively silenced Bulldogs big boppers like Frank Pritchard and Sam Kasiano.

"Melbourne Storm are very good at it. They're very good at controlling their possession and sort of strangling sides," Scott said.

"I think that is what they did to the Bulldogs. It would be great if we can put together a game of footy like that.

"If you complete your sets and have a good kicking game you can limit what they can do with the footy."

Winger Sam Perrett, one of five Bulldogs in the NZ camp, expects Australia to produce a game plan identical to the Storm's because of the heavy role played by the Melbourne trio.

"Yeah, I guess there's plenty of similarities in the way that Australia and the Storm play," Perrett said. "They're going to be playing their own styles, which is that grind mentality, and we're going to be expecting that for sure."