League Express editor MARTYN SADLER reflects on a great occasion in Sydney as the Pacific Cup competition reached its climax.
HOW much has international Rugby League changed in the last ten years?
The growth of Tonga and Samoa to rank alongside the tier one nations of Australia, New Zealand and England has completely transformed our game.
We now have five nations that can go confidently into an international match against every other nation and feel confident of performing well, if not winning.
And following on their coattails are the nations of Papua New Guinea and Fiji, who I hope will reach the same level in the near future.
What wouldn’t we give for teams like that in the northern hemisphere.
And what was so interesting was that the second iteration of the Pacific Cup was so much more successful than the first.
Last year’s tournament finale in the New Zealand city of Hamilton saw the Kiwis hammer the Australians 30-0 in front of only 13,269 supporters.
This year’s final attracted 28,728 to CommBank Stadium in Parramatta and I suspect that the TV viewing figures, when they are released early today (Monday), will be hugely impressive.
In fact it will be interesting to compare them to the viewing figures for the rugby union game between England and Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.
That was a game in which the Sydney Roosters star Joseph Suaalii made his international rugby union debut in his first ever 15-a-side game as an adult.
And he wowed the audience at Twickenham, which led to the Sydney Morning Herald headline ‘Rugby just gave Suaalii something the NRL never can’.
It was the usual rugby union tactic of claiming that their sport offers far more international opportunities than ours.
“There is something special about the Wallabies beating England at Twickenham,” wrote Paul Cully.
“It transcends the sport. It’s stirring because even if you don’t like rugby the sight of young Australians defying the odds, in a hostile sporting arena far from home, says something about the country as a whole.
“Australian rugby has been rubbish at communicating this – really shouting it from the rooftops – but despite all the struggles it remains almost uniquely well-placed to offer this experience for sportspeople.
“Suaalii obviously gets it, but the Twickenham victory was a perfectly timed reminder of the code’s strengths.”
Yet the truth is that the atmosphere at CommBank Stadium was far more joyful and uplifting than we saw at Twickenham.
The task facing Rugby League administrators is to replicate that atmosphere for many more international occasions.
One of the issues facing Tonga is whether their coach Kristian Woolf will remain with them when he becomes the head coach of the Dolphins next season.
He was ambivalent when asked about that after the game.
“The first people I talk to will be the bloke beside me (Jason Taumalolo) – he’s been here with me since my first involvement in 2013,” he said.
“Him and Addin (Fonua-Blake, Tongan captain) will be the first two I’ll speak to. We’ll figure that out.”
And, whatever his decision, Woolf is confident that Tonga’s momentum will be sustained.
“They’re all only going to get better and they’re going to get better together,” he added.
When the Tongan supporters began singing Eiki Koe ‘Ofa ’A’au together it took us back to that World Cup semi-final in 2017 in Auckland, when England just held them off.
It was a wonderful scene and perhaps we should sympathise with Joseph Suaali’i for having missed it while playing in the relative sterile atmosphere of Twickenham.
Meanwhile in the game that followed, we saw New Zealand hammer Papua New Guinea 54-12 and there was the great Shaun Johnson making the final appearance of his career before retirement.
As I’ve said on the League Express Podcast recently, Johnson looks far from a spent force and he would be a great signing for a Super League club looking for an experienced halfback.
And at the other end of the experience scale, what a great international debut for the teenage Penrith winger Casey McLean, who scored four tries on his debut.
How good is international Rugby League?
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