How's this for smoke...While watching that I couldn't get the thought from my head that Danes selection was a condition of Jai committing to the All Whites. Hudson was almost overly defensive about him In Particular.
I just cant wrap my head around a 17 year old seen for half an hour being selected for the national side. I might be wrong but he was not selected for Aussie age group sides, yet straight into our All Whites? Devalues the jersey in my humble opinion and your thought makes sense then.
Dane was part of the first u-20 Australian training camp of the year a month ago preparing for their first qualifiers in October for the 2019 u-20 world Cup (AFC u-19 championship qualifiers).
Australia just aren't qualifying for any FIFA age group finals any more - they missed out on this year's FIFA u-20 and u-17 Finals, plus last year's Olympics (u-23's). They also missed out on the 2015 u-20 World Cup.
Playing in the FIFA u-20 Finals in South Korea in May for NZ along with being part of the AW's senior squad must seem more attractive than a possible call up by Australia later in the year (no guarantee) for qualifiers for the next cycle of qualifying for the FIFA u-20 World Cup.
Australia didn't even come close to qualifying for May's u-20 World Cup - in a sixteen team AFC u-19 Finals in Bahrain, Australia failed to get out of their group (Uzbekistan and Tajikistan went through instead).
It does happen in other countries too, especially smaller countries, that a teenage player identified as a talented prospect will play for his country before establishing himself at club level. Norway's Martin Odegaard made his senior debut for Norway aged 15 in August 2014 and his first competitive match October 2014 still aged 15. He had only played three matches in Norway's top flight before May 2014 because his age meant that he could only be on an amateur contract at his club since he was still at school and only permitted to play three games per season - he had otherwise only played in youth leagues and the fifth tier for the reserves. He'd only signed a pro contract in May 2014 enabling him to play more games for his club, three months before his debut for the Norway senior team.
Odegaard transferred to Real Madrid in January 2015 but had to wait until November 2016 for his one appearance for the first team, continuing to win caps for Norway in 2015 and 2016 while only playing for Real's reserve team in a third tier regional league. Only in January this year was he sent on loan to Herenveen in the Eredivisie and started to play regular first team football.