Kiwis captain Adam Blair has criticised the way Jason Taumalolo went about switching allegiances to Tonga for the Rugby League World Cup.
Speaking to Saturday Sport with Brendan Telfer, Blair accused Taumalolo of letting the team down, as well as the Kiwis backroom staff by not communicating his decision earlier to them.
"I think the most disappointing thing about the whole situation is how they've gone about it," Blair said.
"The New Zealand management and the coaching staff have put a lot of effort into this World Cup and then to try and put all things together and then in the last minute have a few people pull out is the most disappointing thing for myself."
Despite hearing earlier rumours, Blair feels Taumalolo's motive behind the decision would have been on his mind for a while and believes the 24-year-old is not being entirely truthful with his reasoning.
"I heard something about it maybe a week and a half ago but to be honest never really took much thought about it because I didn't think it was going to happen," Blair said.
"I think there's more to it than what we're reading. To be honest, I think he may have been doing this a while ago, I don't think it's come all of a sudden like it has."
The 41-Test veteran has also suggested that Taumalolo would have influenced the other defectors but accepts the laws within the game allow them to move freely between countries.
"I know that Jason is a very big voice when it comes to the Tongan boys and he is one of our leading forwards in the game of NRL," Blair said.
"I'm sure he would of been speaking to those boys.
"Most of the boys would've been selected for the New Zealand team and to pull out in the last hour of the team being named is the most disappointing thing.
"Just thinking about how they would of come about their decisions - but at the same time, the rules have opened it up for them to do what they have done."
The tournament is just a few weeks away, and Blair concedes they will do well to win their group with such strong opposition.
"It'll be interesting won't it? Our pool is a tough pool and to play it at home against the likes of Samoa and Tonga and then Scotland as well who we had trouble with over in the UK against, it was always going to be a tough pool," Blair said.
"Tonga will be up there with the favourites I'm guessing.
"But the big thing here for us is we need to move forward and look forward to what we have now."
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