One is the Queensland bushie who made his Maroons’ Origin debut at 32 years of age. The other is a Tongan firebrand who once went so hard at training, he broke a star teammate’s jaw.

Together, Kurt Mann and Sitili Tupouniua – Canterbury’s odd couple – have formed one of the NRL’s most destructive bench combinations.

Mann and Tupouniua have had no problems bending the line against tiring packs the past couple of weeks, and will lift the Dogs when injected into the action against Penrith on Sunday.

The pair struck an immediate bond when they were first introduced at training in the off-season – and they quickly established they had more in common than just their long locks.

“Sitili is one of my favourite players to play with – if you asked him to run through a brick wall, he’d do it for

See Full Page