Crucial clashes for Pacific nations
Tonga are hoping for a repeat of that enthusiasm that was there for them at the 2011 Rugby World Cup when they take on Fiji at Eden Park in Auckland today.
There has been a lot of talk about the Tongan rugby league team being such a phenomenon in Auckland in recent years, attracting massive crowds.
But the real trend setters for galvanising the Tongan community were the country’s rugby team, who made such an impact when they arrived in the country for the Rugby World Cup eight years ago.
So many people turned up to welcome them that Auckland Airport had to be temporarily closed down.
Tonga’s captain for today’s test, Siale
Piutau, is one of the few remaining players from the
Tongan team in 2011 and says it’s something he’ll never forget.
‘‘There are a couple of us boys here who were involved in the 2011
World Cup and that’s when we first saw the passion of our people and the support,’’ Piutau said after the team’s captain’s run yesterday.
‘‘Turning up at the airport, being rushed to the welcoming and getting told that there had been flights delayed because there weren’t any carparks and the motorways were jam packed.
‘‘It’s a memory that I’ll always keep and we hope that our families and supporters will come out again.
‘‘We’re hoping that the same crowd that supported the rugby league team turns up and there’s a sea of red in the crowd.’’
Those were great days for the Tongan rugby team and they played in front of packed crowds throughout New Zealand.
But it will be interesting to see what sort of crowd turns up today for the double header, billed as the Pasifika Challenge II, with Samoa taking on the NZ Heartland team, followed by Fiji against Tonga.
Certainly there hasn’t been much hype around these games and only 11⁄2 stands will be open at Eden Park.
The price of tickets also dropped on Thursday to just $10, so perhaps ticket sales haven’t been going well.
It’s not something that the teams can get bogged down thinking about, as for three of them, these are crucial fixtures in their World Cup preparations.
Piutau believes the Tongans are in good shape for their test today, with the team enjoying being in New Zealand for this game and then against the All Blacks in Hamilton the following week.
‘‘A lot of the boys grew up here in Auckland, so it’s great to be back here and reconnect with family,’’ said Piutau, who played for Counties Manukau, the Chiefs and Highlanders before heading overseas.
‘‘We had a good week in Tonga and reconnected with family there too.
‘‘For a lot of boys, they’ve learnt about culture and traditions and that’s will have helped us with our preparations.’’
Tonga have a good idea of what to expect today, but that’s not the case for Samoa, who’ll be playing against a combined side made up of players from the Heartland provinces.
‘‘We don’t know anything about the Heartland team,’’ Samoa captain Jack Lam said.
‘‘So we’re fully focused on us and we’re trying to concentrate on our game plan and hopefully in connects well.’’
Samoa play the Wallabies next weekend and like Piutau, Lam said they used the Pacific Nations Cup to develop their squad, with things then going up a level for this weekend.
‘‘In the PNC we had a lot of changes, a lot of debutants because we were trying to build depth in the team,’’ he said.
‘‘The coaches got what they wanted out of the PNC, which was to see players and there’s a core group of players who’ve been together for a while now.’’
Lam, who played for Tasman, Waikato and the Hurricanes during his time in New Zealand, is looking for a new club after the World Cup.
He was let go at Bristol by his cousin Pat Lam at the end of last season, so a good World Cup should help him secure a better deal somewhere else. As of right now, he doesn’t know where he’ll end up.
‘‘I’m not too sure,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m with the Samoan team at the moment and we’ll see what happens after that.’’