Roy Leoni (27) and Laupepe Pasene (24) played for the New Zealand Universities side at the Universities Rugby League World Cup in Queensland, and both made the paper tournament XIII, named at the end of the competition at the weekend.
The paper XIII does not play a game.
New Zealand lost its semifinal to England but bounced back to beat Wales in the play-off for third and fourth.
It had earlier beaten France, Wales and Ireland in pool play.
Australia won the Cup, beating England 26-16 in the final.
Leoni, a stand-off, said not having a local competition to play in was not too much of a hindrance.
Prior to the tournament, it was before Easter when both Leoni and Pasene last played a game of rugby league, at the University Games in Rotorua.
They tried other forms of exercise to keep up the fitness.
"We played a few games of rugby, games of indoor netball, and trained among ourselves," Leoni said.
"We were lucky when we got there we had a warm-up game and that got us used to the game again."
The Dunedin league competition was canned this year because of a lack of teams and finance.
Leoni, a second-year computer science student, said the tournament was a step-up from what was played in the Dunedin competition last year.
Pasene, who was in Auckland visiting family yesterday, was a prop for the side.
He said it was a shock to be picked in the tournament side.
A third-year education student, he played a few games in the centres for the Alhambra-Union premier rugby side this year, although he says he was just a crash man in midfield.
University of Otago students Rema Smith and Tusi Cordtz were also members of the New Zealand side.
