Jump to content

Tonga Squad Announced

welshmagpie

Recommended Posts


Lounge Room Lizard

Lounge Room Lizard

Posted
Posted

As others have said very powerful but the Spine especially the halves they are weak.Hopoate is a ok Fullback but offers little threat. Asiata has been impressive with the Cowboys for me and is hard to handle but has a good hands. But has no real kicking game. Dont see what Lolohea offers to anybody. A poor player for me. Hookers some good players if not outstanding. Wish they had a better spine as they would challenge and maybe beat Australia.

To have the likes of young Kotoni Staggs, Manase Fainu is good for now and great for the future. That pack for me is as good as any around is fairly young. Thats where Tonga will have it over the other Nations for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DavidM

DavidM

Posted
Posted

Same old same old . Looks a strong pack with potency in the backs but it’s the halves that hold the key and make the difference and they haven’t got them . No way Tui and Asiata are even remotely international halves with the required skill set . Until they nail that beating the best consistently will be tough , but they’ll always be competitive with what they have now and pull it off  now n again on natural ability . Put two halves in and there’s no one stronger 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Man of Kent

Man of Kent

Posted
Posted

Seems not, surprising given the two Tests are. 

https://www.rugbyleagueontv.com/internationals

Saturday 22nd June

6:30am Oceania Cup - Pool A New Zealand v Tonga

LIVE STREAM: Fox League via Watch NRL

8:45am Time Pacific Test Fiji v Lebanon

LIVE TV: Sky Sports (Channel TBC)
LIVE STREAM: Fox League via Watch NRL

11:00am Oceania Cup - Pool B Papua New Guinea v Samoa

LIVE TV: Sky Sports (Channel TBC)

LIVE STREAM: Fox League via Watch

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Harry Stottle

Harry Stottle

Posted
Posted
17 hours ago, welshmagpie said:

Australian born, New Zealand born, Tongan born... anybody that’s eligible I suppose.

Is there any Tongan born representatives in the Tongan team squad, or if there is did they learn their trade in Tonga? Is Rugby League actually played in Tonga amongst it's native population and if so at what standard for example would they be better than say a native Serbian team? Not that I expect you to know all those answers Maggie but some people on this site may have an opinion to the questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cookey

cookey

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

Is there any Tongan born representatives in the Tongan team squad, or if there is did they learn their trade in Tonga? Is Rugby League actually played in Tonga amongst it's native population and if so at what standard for example would they be better than say a native Serbian team? Not that I expect you to know all those answers Maggie but some people on this site may have an opinion to the questions.

Sounds a bit like the English cricket team or Union side then.

Where do the England cricket team stay when they tour South Africa. At home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Harry Stottle

Harry Stottle

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, cookey said:

Sounds a bit like the English cricket team or Union side then.

Where do the England cricket team stay when they tour South Africa. At home.

Totally agree with you, what you don't say though Cookey is wether you applaud or disagree with country hoppers or not?

And, your last sentence is very much what I have said about Toronto, coming from the town I hail from, I know a few of the player's TWP have employed in the last 2 and a half years and the joke is "are you away this week sleeping in your own bed, or are you at home, staying away!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Harry Stottle

Harry Stottle

Posted
Posted

For DavO5 with your confused emoji, its very simple really, I believe that the vast majority of the Tongan players are born and bred Australian and z couple if Kiwi's who are representing Tonga through the heritage ruling which if I am correct goes up to grandparent level, how are Tonga going to keep a qulity team going in future years, are pregnant wives and girlfriends going to jump on a plane to the island to give birth in order keep the lineage going?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dunbar

Dunbar

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Harry Stottle said:

For DavO5 with your confused emoji, its very simple really, I believe that the vast majority of the Tongan players are born and bred Australian and z couple if Kiwi's who are representing Tonga through the heritage ruling which if I am correct goes up to grandparent level, how are Tonga going to keep a qulity team going in future years, are pregnant wives and girlfriends going to jump on a plane to the island to give birth in order keep the lineage going?

Harry, I know nothing of your personal and family life.

But let us suppose you fell in love with and married an Australian woman and you decided to move there. And then you had a son.

Would you be proud of him if he said he wanted to represent England at Rugby League or would you berate him and persuade him that he was an Australian. 

(p.s. please don't come back to me and say you are already married etc etc. This is a thought experiment)

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rhinos78

rhinos78

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

For DavO5 with your confused emoji, its very simple really, I believe that the vast majority of the Tongan players are born and bred Australian and z couple if Kiwi's who are representing Tonga through the heritage ruling which if I am correct goes up to grandparent level, how are Tonga going to keep a qulity team going in future years, are pregnant wives and girlfriends going to jump on a plane to the island to give birth in order keep the lineage going?

Dont overthink it, just enjoy the next ten year of having another competitive, very exciting nation in the mix. See what happpens in future when the time comes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Keith989

Keith989

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

For DavO5 with your confused emoji, its very simple really, I believe that the vast majority of the Tongan players are born and bred Australian and z couple if Kiwi's who are representing Tonga through the heritage ruling which if I am correct goes up to grandparent level, how are Tonga going to keep a qulity team going in future years, are pregnant wives and girlfriends going to jump on a plane to the island to give birth in order keep the lineage going?

The simple answer is they aren't going to keep a quality team all the time. Their form will fluctuate vastly from generation to generation just like their union counter parts.

The Samoan union team were in a similar position a while back when they were beating the likes of Wales and Aus away in 2011/12 and they were the talk of the town but now their form has fallen off a cliff and there was a brief worry they wouldn't even qualify for the world cup.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
welshmagpie

welshmagpie

Posted
  • Author
Posted
3 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

Is there any Tongan born representatives in the Tongan team squad, or if there is did they learn their trade in Tonga? Is Rugby League actually played in Tonga amongst it's native population and if so at what standard for example would they be better than say a native Serbian team? Not that I expect you to know all those answers Maggie but some people on this site may have an opinion to the questions.

Tonga Residents have recently played a 3 game series against Fiji Residents, so yes.

sign up to the leagueunlimited forums, lots of international stuff is discussed over there. It’ll keep you in the loop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.