Tongans ready for war in Waikato Battle with Kiwis to be fiery

RUGBY LEAGUE: It is being talked up as the World Cup’s “War in Waikato” but Tongan coach Kristian Woolf says Jason Taumalolo will do his talking on the field against New Zealand on Saturday.

It will be the first time Taumalolo goes head-to-head with the Kiwis since Adam Blair accused the game’s best forward of not being “man enough” to tell coach David Kidwell or the New Zealand players about his plans to switch allegiance.

Taumalolo was one of several players who chose Tonga over New Zealand along with the likes of Manu Ma’u, Sio Siua Taukeiaho and David Fusitu’a, while Andrew Fifita also withdrew from the Australian side.

But heading into the final pool game of the tournament it now sets up what’s sure to be a fiery showdown with the powerhouse Tongans up against a heavyweight Kiwi pack that includes the likes of Blair, Russell Packer, Martin Taupau, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Nelson Asofa-Solomona.

Asked how he expected Taumalolo to handle the emotion of the occasion, Woolf reasoned: “Jase handles most things pretty well. He doesn’t tend to get drawn into things too much and doesn’t let things affect him, so I think he will be fine.” Blair certainly didn’t hide his feelings before the tournament when he was scathing because Taumalolo didn’t front Kiwi teammates or management about his switch.

“You’ve got to be a man and own up to what you want to do,” Blair said at the time.

“If you were man enough, you’d make the phone call and tell them.”

Blair also accused Taumalolo of influencing Fusitu’a, and admitted that he would find it hard to ever reconcile.

Tonga’s impressive 32-18 win over Samoa last weekend assured them of advancing beyond the group stage for the first time at the World Cup in five attempts, and a win over the Kiwis would create more rugby league history given no tier two nation has ever beaten a tier one nation.

“Obviously it would be outstanding to be the first but at the same time we are not getting ahead of ourselves one bit and thinking that is going to be the case,” Woolf said.

“This is going to be a really good measure of where we actually do sit. We just need to be really competitive.”

Woolf described the atmosphere last weekend against Samoa as “Origin-like” and expects this Saturday’s game to be much the same.