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St George Illawarra rookie Steven Marsters may have outshone his older cousin Esan in his international debut for the Cook Islands last Friday, but the 19-year-old didn’t even know until he got home.
Marsters has aspirations of following the same path to the NRL as his cousin Wests Tigers centre Esan and hopes his performance against the South Africa Rhinos will be enough to get him there.
Marsters scored 18 of the Cook Islands 66 points all from the kicking tee where he kicked nine conversions, breaking the record for the most points scored for the Kuki's.
"Playing for the Cook Islands has always been a privilege to do especially representing my grandfather' side and carrying his name to hopefully one day playing the World Cup," Marsters said.
"Being the record holder, I didn’t actually know that I broke it until I got home though. When I got home, mum called me and she was like 'oh son, did you know that you broke the record for the Cook Islands rugby league'.
"I just stood there thinking nah I didn’t, surely not, I only scored like 18 points, but she was like nah you did."
Esan played for New Zealand in Saturday night’s Oceania Cup Test against Tonga but previously represented Cook Islands prior to his NRL debut.
A friendly rivalry between the pair, Marsters jokingly said he loved taking the limelight from his cousin for once.
"The first thing that came to my mind was ‘I think I broke Esan’s record, he was the last person that was kicking so wow, he’s going to be angry',” Marsters laughed.
"My Aunty called him apparently just before his game and he was like 'nah I’m going to score, I’m going to break records for the Kiwis' and I laughed because he’s always like that.
“Every time something like that happens he denies it and we just take it as a joke. I couldn’t believe that I broke it and my granddad was there for me at the game.”
Marsters will now shift his focus to the Dragons and will be waiting patiently for his chance to make his NRL debut. Marsters as a development player will be available for first grade selection post-June 30 if his form permits.
"I’m still going to be patient, I know that if my time is right, it will come," Marsters said.
“Me making my international debut, it’s a lot bigger to me, but making my NRL debut, that’s something that I’ve always looked up to because this is what I’ve been doing
“I’ve been doing this for my family, so it means more than anything. When it comes to making my debut, I’ve just got to be patient and play good footy.”
