Thought this may interest some of you, Toa has been forced to retire with his knee. A great servant to Warrington and Widnes. www.widnesvikings.co.uk/article.php?id=2482

Thought this may interest some of you, Toa has been forced to retire with his knee. A great servant to Warrington and Widnes. www.widnesvikings.co.uk/article.php?id=2482

Top player, awesome sidestep!

Thanks for the memories Toa (the high tackle on Renouf being a particular favourite of mine).

Well in Toa,what he lacked in defence,
He made up for it with a great step,a good honest pro.

Played miles above his weight. All the best Toa, thanks for the tries and all the huge hits..

a true gentleman, head hunting defender and a nice guy!

I'm torn for the favourite Toa moment! The try against Saints in 1996 or the one-bomb punch in 2005 against Leigh! What ever happened to centre's with a bit of biff!

Toa Toa Toa Toa Toa Kohe Love, you come and go, you come and gooo, loving you should be easy when you wear the colours you know, primrose and blue, primrose and bluuuue

A terrific servant to UK and Maori RL, scored some superb tries and mullered a few opposite centres. Thanks for the memories, Toa - I've got plenty. Hope he isn't lost to the game.. best of luck in whatever you do next.

Best of luck in your future career & thanks for the memories

This thread has just reminded me. I could have sworn I seen Toa in the Chapel House a couple of weeks ago........

The early Toa was one of the most exciting players we've had, in fact I'll be controversial and say the Toa of about 1999-2001 was better than King, Bridge or Atkins are now. He could swerve and step without dropping pace and he had good hands as well. Toa at his best would have ripped up if he was in our team now, I reckon he'd have had about 30 tries a season.

Second spell with us he wasn't quite the same attacking force but his defence was better and he'd cleaned the high tackles out of his game. Now you look back on his career I think he's one like Cardiss and Reardon who had injuries take the edge off his game quite early in his career, it was a shame. He was still a decent player but when you think back to the days before he went to Hull, he was dynamite. He was my favourite Wire player at the time and still one of my all time faves. Hope he's cheering on the Wire on Saturday...

A cracking player in early Super League years. Pity Steve Anderson saw him out the door, he would have been a major player for us in that 2002 season.

Not better than Atkins, who IMHO has been the best centre in in Superlegue for the past couple of months.

Fond Wilderspool memories of shouting 'go on love' though. Top player.

toa is a legend!!!!!!!!!!!!

don't think anderson had anything to do with it, hull offering him a fat sack of cash and him being off quota had more to do with it.

i still remember the joey game in 05 after he came back, some fooker threw a full set of keys at him on the pitch.

We didn't really give ourselves a chance to re-sign Toa at the end of 2001, at the point when he came into the last 6 months of his contract and other clubs could talk to him, we didn't have a coach in place for 2002, and we only had about two players on contract, the whole team was pretty much being dismantled, Langer going back to Aus, Nikau retiring, Nutley signed for Cronulla, Sibbit signed for Melbourne. Hull looked at the time like a club on the up, they were in the playoffs and had Jason Smith, and looked a good bet for him, he also saw what was on the cards with us - we didn't have any players and would have to put together a ragtag team of castoffs and lower division players who would struggle.

If he had known PC was coming things could have been very different. I knew things were turning around when we signed Warren Stevens.

A true gent to speak to and a great player. Enjoy your retirement,you've more than earned it mate.

A classic!

Loved watching him play & the few times I have spoken to him since he left Wire he has been a gent with genuine feelings for Wire. I thought he would have made a world class stand-off with his speed of brain, feet & hand. Memories of watching him glide through plenty of lines with his superman try at the HJ a particular favourite. Opposing centres will rest a bit easier now...

I tend to agree. Great strength, speed, balance, handling and commitment.

I'd agree with Sally - I'd rate the Toa of his 1st spell as one of the best centres I've seen at the Wire. Up there with Bateman in the priceless ability to seemingly in one smooth motion take the ball at pace, step and glide past his opposite number.

One of those players who created an air of anticipation whenever he had the ball. He was a real bright spot in a mediocre side.

Class player and one of my favourites of recent times. Still not that old really at 33 - a shame but thanks for the memories Toa and good luck for the future.