The Kiwis just hammered Kiwi B...... Sorry.... TONGA. Great atmosphere here at MT Smart, but the tongan rescue of intwrnational RL is over.... They were friggin awful.

I did not see the game because there was no coverage in Moscow or on www.watchnrl.com But I do know one thing. Tonga has no players of the calibre of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Shaun Johnson.

I did not see the game because there was no coverage in Moscow or on www.watchnrl.com But I do know one thing. Tonga has no players of the calibre of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Shaun Johnson.

Quote ="JEAN CAPDOUZE"I did not see the game because there was no coverage in Moscow or on www.watchnrl.com But I do know one thing. Tonga has no players of the calibre of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Shaun Johnson.'" You dont have get around John

Quote ="JEAN CAPDOUZE"I did not see the game because there was no coverage in Moscow or on www.watchnrl.com But I do know one thing. Tonga has no players of the calibre of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Shaun Johnson.'" You dont have get around John

I do have to get around. Unfortunately it means that I miss Catalans and Toulouse games because of lack of television or internet coverage in Moscow. Next weekend in Kiev but the same problem.

You obviously watched a different game to me - Tonga were competitive throughout, and bossed large parts of the game, the main difference was the half backs.

I was there...... There was only ever one teqm going to win. As for half backs....... If tonga are the future, then they need to find them..... Maybe they should look in south auckland where the rest of their team come from...... Of the 34 on show tinight, 2......TWO were born in tonga..... Farcical.

Surely the success of the international game is about having more competitive nations, not just about winning every game? Tonga are super competitive and would IMO beat England at the moment, even with their current half backs. Getting beaten by NZ is hardly embarassing or bubble bursting.

As for where their players are born, that's irrelevant in today's world, and even more irrelevant to those with Pacific island heritage, where mass migration has been common for decades. Why is it such an issue?

Was Lolohea just as bad as he’s been for Leeds?

Alternatively, the Kiwis have got their together after being awful for a few years?

Yet they’re all ethnically Tongan and proud of it!

In fact, ethnically, New Zealand must have the fewest ethnically local people playing for them than any other nation as most of them are Tongan or Samoan or European.

How embarrassing that there more Tonga fans than New Zealand fans. Does anyone actually care about RL in New Zealand anymore? Give their place in the NRL to Perth

What has the make up of the NZ population or team got to do with anything. The tongan side have 2 tongan born players..... Thats as farcical as a Dublin born cricketer captaining england.......but the tonga are great for international stampede is farcical....... Wait until they play away from south auckland,......

They wouldn’t get anywhere near beating England there a one season wonder the hunt for that fourth competitive team goes on

More than give it a second thought in the Gold Coast, Cronulla, Illawarra, Penrith, Townsville, Canberra, Manly, South Sydney and West Sydney if their average attendance figures are anything to go by....even more so given that 5 of those teams sit above them on the ladder.


Rugby League is the 2nd code in NZ and therefore will struggle for attention, but there are a great many number of fans who watch all sports.....

It could very well be that there's a very good argument from taking one of the Sydney sides to Perth...Cronulla average just 12k.......and they were champions only 2 seasons ago....shocking gates for a champion side!

The tide is coming in for Pacific Island RL.
20 years ago it was rare to see more than 2 or 3 Islander players in elite level junior sides. Now it's rare to see more than 2 or 3 anglo players in the western Sydney based teams.
Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, PNG and even Cook Islands get more and more players to pick from every year.
They'll have good years and bad years, but the trajectory for them is year on year improvement for the next 10 years at least.
"One season wonders" is so not what is happening here.

Beg to differ here...... Plenty of players not good enough for NZ/AU putting their hands up fir the country their granny was born in isnt development..... Its just adding teams with players not giod enough for the top sides.....


The searchbfor a 4th nation continues.........not a side full of heritage players

One game.
There'll be other games. Some wins some not.

The location of the hospital bed where you popped out of your Mother’s vagina isn’t that important. Your family history (heritage) and ethnicity and what you identify yourself as, is. If you are Tongan by heritage, ethnicity and identity, then you are Tongan. Even if you were born and live in New Zealand.

It would be different if these players stuck with there countries but they don’t the best ones will always play for Australia or New Zealand until there seemed not good enough and then they go back to badge kissing there long lost country first we had Samoa as the next big thing then Fiji and now Tonga I wish these countries would make it but sadly they won’t and a question for you roopy what’s gone wrong at the PNG hunters

Nothing has gone wrong at the PNG Hunters.
From day one they have been happy to release any player who gets an offer from an NRL, ESL or Qld cup side, and as they have trained up players, they have lost good players by the dozens.
Only 5 current PNG Hunters played for PNG yesterday - the rest were contracted to NRL or Qld cup sides, and if they had been able to fly in ESL players, there's a fair chance it would have been about 2 Hunters in the side.
That is success. They are getting guys up to a standard where rich clubs offer them good money, and off they go to improve themselves.
The current Hunters side is basically stacked full of kids who are training fulltime and trying to get a contract somewhere else.

Cheers didn’t realise the dynamics just saw them at the top then a bit lower down the following season until this year when they seem to be struggling do they still get good crowds

Romantic ideals I am sure, but your place of birth is where you are from. Clasping to heritage sides as if they are the saviour of International RL is a tad pathetic in my eyes. I believe the figure at the 2017 RLWC was 78% of the players were born in either France, PNG, England, Australia or NZ.......that's only 45 of the other 207 players in the 9 other squads were representing the country of their birth.
I know other sports have heritage players......the England Cricket captain an obvious one, but we really do grasp at straws trying to make ourselves seem global when we really aren't.

BTW.......South Auckland contains more people of Tongan Heritage than Tonga has Tongans......When they play in South Auckland or Hamilton, an hours drive away, they are well supported......when they pay in Christchurch then are not (see 2017 RLWC statistics). Then there's the thorny issue of the likes of Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita, playing for another country after already representing the countries of their birth........not really a good look and in my eyes and a great deal of other sports fans, it does make us look a little tin pot.

I look at the current ICC World Cup and wonder why it is that we feel the need to have 14 or more sides in our world cup, with players taken from 4 competitions in the main, when Cricket does the opposite?

Cricket is the National Sport of Australia and Indian....it is held in high regard in Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, New Zealand......the Caribbean Island see it as a great sport and in England, international cricket is still well attended......so only Afghanistan could be cited as a "made up team"....and yet they have 6 first class professional sides in their domestic competition, from which they take the majority of their players for the national side.
The IPL TV deal dwarfls the NRL.........yes, there's a few more indians than Ockers, but still.......and the ECB signed a deal with The BBC & Sky worth......£1 Billion.........did I really read that [urlhttps://www.reuters.com/article/cricket-england-tv/cricket-ecb-announces-new-five-year-broadcasting-deal-with-sky-sports-and-bbc-idUSL3N1JR48X[/url

But yeah. Playing a Tongan game in south Auckland where there are more heritage Tongans than Tongans in Tonga and charging $12.50 a ticket (£6) and getting 23,000 fans is proof of how MASSIVE RL is in Tonga, which only has 12 amateur teams, is the future of International RL.

France and PNG is where we should be investing our time and effort.....both countries have domestic comps and field domestic players in their international sides......I'd rather have Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and the Cooks play regularly, with home born players and leave the 2nd tier Aussie/NZ players to rot rather than weaken our game.

They still get good crowds.
There are only 6 players from their 2017 winning squad still at the club. A few retired after the World cup, but most of the others got offers from elsewhere and snapped them up, with the blessings of all PNG league fans, who love nothing more than seeing their players do well in professional clubs.

Where you are born is where you are from but it doesn’t mean that is your nationality. Mo Farah was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. However he is British and runs for Great Britain. Look at loads of footballers, born in one place but represent another. Happens all the time. Football fans never mention it. Owen Hargreaves never lived in England at all i his life until he moved to Manchester United aged 26 yet played for Wales U19s and then England from age 20.

Don’t think it’s ever crossed my mind to say these examples shouldn’t happen.

And if I were ever good enough in any sport I would love to be able to represent Great Britain AND Poland. Maybe start off with GB and end an international career with Poland as I have both British and Polish blood. Why should I have to be stamped into one or the other?

I think that rule of only ever being allowed to play for one country is daft for those with mixed heritage.