Test debutant Jason Nightingale is glad he piped up to former Kiwis rugby league coach Gary Freeman last year.

Until then, the young St George-Illawarra winger was "Jason who" to New Zealand league officials.

Having scored seven tries from 16 NRL matches in his debut year, Nightingale was unsure whether anyone knew he was a dinkum Kiwi, albeit one born in Sydney.

"At the end of last year I made sure they knew about me. It was after our last game of the season and I was talking to Gary Freeman and made sure I told him: 'Do you know I'm a Kiwi?," Nightingale told NZPA.

"He said: `No, I'd better tell someone'. So he told the right people and it all started rolling from there."

Nightingale, 21, was shoulder-tapped for the Kiwis tour of Britain and France last year but opted out because he needed off-season ankle surgery.

This year he has picked up where he left off in 2007, scoring five tries from seven NRL matches, leading to a call from new coach Stephen Kearney for the Centenary Test against the Kangaroos at the Sydney Cricket Ground next Friday.

He nearly dropped the phone.

"It took me about 10 seconds to realise what he was saying. I was being a bit cheeky at the start, saying `come on ...'

"I noticed the New Zealand accent straight away but I didn't really believe it, but after talking to him for a while I did."

There's no obscure New Zealand connection and certainly no Grannygate controversy around Nightingale.

He lived most of the first four years of his life in NZ, returned to Australia, then lived two years across the Tasman at the ages of 11 and 12.

"For the last couple of days my phone hasn't stopped ringing, just family and friends saying congratulations. It's a pretty special feeling," said Nightingale, who also signed a three-year deal with the Dragons this week.

"I've had about 10 texts saying: `Do you even know how to do the haka?'

"I did it as a kid but other than that it's a long way off. I've seen it done 100 times, surely it can't be too difficult."

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