NRL 2017
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Tonga crushes Scotland 50-4. They have a dominant side in this tournament but their halves (Lolohea/Hingano) and hooker (Havili) will be tested.
Kiwis Vs Tonga at Waikato Stadium is looking to be the game to go to. Will probably head down for it.
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Watched sky highlights this morning.
Great crowd (noise) in Port Moresby. Although not 100% full, which is surprising to me as it is their national sport.It's been a long, long time time I've seen any televised league test out of PNG. I remember a few in the 80s & early 90s, when it was crowd hanging from trees and roofs cliche, and (nz) players reporting in the size of the rocks in the playing field.
Flash stadium now, there was a Fifa U20 (or U17?) women's World Cup there a year or 2 ago, I think they built stadiums for (which played to empty crowds).
The PNG govt pledged to fund Tonga's stadium redevelopment until the ass fell out of whatever mineral price they are reliant on and they reneged (hence Tonga playing Wales at Eden Park earlier this year)
My old boss went to PNG for the Kiwis' 1986 tour as a part of the media corp. He tells a story about going over a very treacherous mountain pass in a rickety old bus (possibly to Goroka for the first test, judging by Wikipedia), but the trip was being made much more difficult by the bus driver, who was swerving all over the place. The team realised he was pissed and had to actually yank him out of the seat for one of the squad to take over.
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Pretty awesome atmosphere at Waikato Stadium, the haka showdown between Samoa and Tonga is doing the rounds on social media.
Kiwis simply ran the helpless Scots off the park. Their best line up to take on Tonga next week at Waikato Stadium will probably be:
1.Tuivasa-Sheck 2.Hiku 3.Whare 4.Takarangi 5.Rapana 6.Martin 7.Johnson 8.Taupau 9.Leuluai 10.Blair 11.Bromwich 12.Tapine 13.Mannering
Bench: 14.Nikorima 15.Packer 16.Liu 17.Asofa-Solomona -
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@booboo NZ are the form team. They have played the most complete game so far.
Aussie are Aussie and they will be there at the end but I think they and England are average as shit this WC.
Absolutely got chills with the pregame for Tonga vs Samoa. Being Samoan there have always been jokes between me and my Tongan friends but this last week in the lead up has been ridiculous for the wider Polynesian community. So many young men, a few older that should no better as well, doing stupid things for absolutely no reason. So it was great to see some unity & leadership from the players. Unfortunately the bloody Tongans won.....
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Wales are getting a smacking of biblical proportions against Fiji, down by 66 points and still ten minutes to go. I know they got a number of injuries in the game in PNG but some of the guys they have out there look like they are part of their ancillary staff. The bus driver is probably the next cab off the rank if they are unfortunate to suffer any more injuries.
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The Kiwi team to play Tonga.
KIWI NO. JERSEY NO. NAME TEST APPEARANCES
779 1 ROGER TUIVASA-SHECK 14
794 2 DALLIN WATENE-ZELEZNIAK 4
776 3 DEAN WHARE 17
803 4 BRAD TAKAIRANGI 2
798 5 JORDAN RAPANA 6
793 6 KODI NIKORIMA 6
774 7 SHAUN JOHNSON 23
785 8 MARTIN TAUPAU 18
704 9 THOMAS LEULUAI 39
755 10 JARED WAEREA-HARGREAVES 21
731 11 SIMON MANNERING 43
800 12 JOSEPH TAPINE 4
732 13 ADAM BLAIR 43
804 14 NELSON ASOFA-SOLOMONA 2
768 15 RUSSELL PACKER 5
805 16 ISAAC LIU 1
806 17 DANNY LEVI 2796 18 KENNY BROMWICH 3
802 19 TE MAIRE MARTIN 2
770 20 ELIJAH TAYLOR 11
781 21 PETA HIKU 10 -
Have decided PNG are my favourite team.
Love the passion.
Although am waiting for the riot to kick off any second.
PNG is the only country in the world where league is officially the number 1 sport ,
NRL players there , are rock stars ,
Very passionate , prob just a bit of a shame , collectively they are a bit on the small size
Stuff
