Kiwis coach Michael Maguire: Tonga clash can be New Zealand's State of Origin

[Mr Angry]

West Indies style.................

 

[Mr Angry]

Just saying, now maybe Tongans feel about Samoans like I do Victorians.

I do not profess to know.

But Jamaicans, can play with Trinidad and Tobago, why not?

 

[titoelcolombiano]

He's kind of correct. The Oceania Championship has the potential to be the Pacific Nations' equivelant of Origin. The colour, the passion, the sold-out stadia in PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand and a feel good media story for the game every time it is played. Also, it can probably successfully run without Australia's involvement - plus TV ratings will still be pretty good in Australia even without the Kangaroos.

 

[Dakink]

Hell yes. I'd be watching this over origin. Dont get me wrong I like origin, however an Oceania Championships gets me more excited.

He's kind of correct. The Oceania Championship has the potential to be the Pacific Nations' equivelant of Origin. The colour, the passion, the sold-out stadia in PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand and a feel good media story for the game every time it is played. Also, it can probably successfully run without Australia's involvement - plus TV ratings will still be pretty good in Australia even without the Kangaroos.

 

[Perth Red]

If we can ignite the samoa support in the way the Tongan support has come out of the woodwork then it would be amazing!

 

[RedVee]

It isn’t that long ago that Samoa was regularly beating Tonga and had an exciting 4 Nations run.

I’m a little concerned about pushing Tonga all the time when perhaps it should just be the best ranked PI nation of the day ?

 

[siv]

i feel for the other PI teams. what about them?

You can still play
- Fiji v PNG
- Samoa v Cooks Is or USA

 

[Springs09]

It isn’t that long ago that Samoa was regularly beating Tonga and had an exciting 4 Nations run.

I’m a little concerned about pushing Tonga all the time when perhaps it should just be the best ranked PI nation of the day ?

If Samoa managed to attract all Samoan-eligible players they would be stronger than Tonga. They actually have a couple of okay halves and would have the current Dally M winner.

They were unlucky not to beat both England and NZ in the Four Nations.

This Oceania Cup should be either 2 pools with a final or one pool where every Pacific nation gets to play Australia and NZ.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

So the kiwis should become like the All Blacks and basically be a PI all star team ? leaving Tonga, Fiji, Samoa totally irrelevant.
I think its a great point of difference between us and union that we have competitive pacific island teams.
Besides, the kiwis just showed they are competitive without their Tongan players, easily beating Australia and England in game 3.

What are you talking about bro?

The All Blacks are a team of New Zealanders from New Zealand (and I say that as basically a Union hater)

The only "all star" teams are these so-called Pacific Island teams (the Tongan rugby league team being the worst offender) which are essentially NZ/Australia composite teams playing under a different flag

Union unfortunately can lay claim to being a bit more legit because they can actually put together teams with a number of Tonga/Samoa based players

 

[hutch]

It isn’t that long ago that Samoa was regularly beating Tonga and had an exciting 4 Nations run.

I’m a little concerned about pushing Tonga all the time when perhaps it should just be the best ranked PI nation of the day ?

Also Fiji who have made the last 3 World Cup semi finals!

 

[Wheeled Warrior]

Yeah, what if Marty Taupau decides to defect to Samoa next year and takes Isaako, Papali'i, Liu and Maumalo with him and then Josh Macguire and Josh Papali'i defect from Oz, and then Valentine Holmes, Esarn Masters, Joseph Manu and Jordan Rapana defect to the Cooks.

We'll be having so many origins. And the Kiwis will have to start getting Oz defectors to be able to field a team.

The old Kidwell all Maori / NZ thing doesn't sound to crazy after all lol I mean any one of these guys can leave / defect based on their heritage if they wish to. If you had only NZ Maori, NZ European or Cook Island Maori players only we would still have a pretty good team. It's a bit more tricky if one player has a mixture of bloods in rival league nations.

 

[deal.with.it]

You need to get some Tongan dometic players into professional pathways

 

[hutch]

You need to get some Tongan dometic players into professional pathways

If this current team doesn’t inspire local Tongan kids to take up rugby league then what is the point? We should have an nrl academy in every island country!

For all the Tongan and Samoan heritage players in the nrl, it is sad that we still have never had a rugby league junior from these countries make it to nrl level.