Roos rookie Bostock ready to cap remarkable rep season

Even prior to kick off he was key to their story, staring down the challenge presented by a spirited Siva Tau, facing off against Jazz Tevaga.

“Obviously pretty cool,” Bostock said.

“I've just seen the videos then on my phone when I was going on it, but it's obviously a part of that (build-up), I've watched the build-up in the other games, and it's pretty cool to be a part of it …

“It's probably not my not my thing (to be too confronting), I'm not a ‘tough guy’, but obviously it's all a part of it …

“(But) 100 percent, you've got to keep the eye contact and then, obviously it leads into the game, sort of fires you up a little bit, so it's pretty cool.”

After putting in their most complete performance of the tournament in the semi-final, this Sunday, it all goes on the line for the Kangaroos as they square off again against a Kiwis side who have arguably been the form team of the competition.

With Kalyn Ponga returning from a broken arm to produce a player of the match performance in his side’s semi-final win over Tonga, his fullback rematch against Reece Walsh is again set to light up the field.

The two forward packs will also be ready to go toe-to-toe, so with match-ups across the park, Bostock was excited to re-engage a rivalry fostered as a child.

“Growing up, majority of the time it was Kiwis and the Kangaroos, that's probably the two oldest teams and the most known rivalry in international footy, so it's going to be great,” Bostock said.

“Both teams are going to be up for it and the fans will be loving it too, so it's going to be pretty cool from my point of view because I've obviously grown up watching the Kiwis and Australia (play) so to be able to play in a World Cup final against the Kiwis, it's going to be pretty cool.”

Despite getting confidence from their close opening win, Bostock said he know both sides would step up another notch for the deciding match.

“It's been a bit of a bit of a rollercoaster getting here,” the Dolphins back said.

“Had a few up and down games as a team, so to save our best one for the finals has been good, and then we can build on that again this week.

“(We will) be working towards obviously winning the World Cup, but so will they.

“They've probably been the most in-form team in this, World Cup, it's no secret they've probably been playing a lot better than us, but it's also our job to go out there and prove it to our fans and really band together in this last round and cap off the World Cup.

“But we're not going to be silly thinking that it's going to fall in our lap again this weekend against the Kiwis, so they're going to come to play and we're going have to match it.”

• The IRL Rugby League World Cup finals matches will be broadcast live and exclusive in Australia on Seven and 7plus, on Sky Sport in New Zealand and Digicel in Papua New Guinea.