Kiwis v Tonga

[Matua]

Finally we have some international league back - Kiwis v Tongan Kiwis.

Mid-season Tests to kick start World Cup campaigns for Pacific nations

New Zealand will host Tonga in Auckland, while Samoa meet Cook Islands and Fiji face Papua New Guinea in a Pacific Test double-header at Campbelltown Stadium

www.nrl.com

I'm looking forward to this match, I expect another 2019 result. I haven't been watching enough NRL matches to know who is in form, so does anyone want to have a go at a 17 for the Kiwis?

 

[Beavers Headgear]

The last kiwi team that ran out

Teams​
Roger TUIVASA-SHECK	1	FB	1	Jonny LOMAX
Ken MAUMALO	2	W	2	Jermaine McGILLVARY
Charnze NICOLL-KLOKSTAD	3	C	3	Jack HUGHES
Joseph MANU	4	C	4	Jake CONNOR
Jamayne ISAAKO	5	W	18	Blake AUSTIN
Shaun JOHNSON	6	FE	6	Gareth WIDDOP
Benji MARSHALL (c)	7	HB	7	Jackson HASTINGS
Zane TETEVANO	8	FR	8	Chris HILL
Brandon SMITH	9	HK	9	Josh HODGSON
Jared WAEREA-HARGREAVES	10	FR	10	Thomas BURGESS
Briton NIKORA	11	2R	11	John BATEMAN
Kevin PROCTOR	15	2R	12	Elliott WHITEHEAD
Joseph TAPINE	13	L	13	James GRAHAM (c)
Kodi NIKORIMA	14	B	14	Josh JONES
Corey HARAWIRA-NAERA	12	B	16	Daryl CLARK
Leeson AH MAU	16	B	17	Alex WALMSLEY
Adam BLAIR

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Number 1, 7, 8, 16, 17 all gone

Names that spring to mind to be in there

Fisher-Harris, Foran, Bromwich x 2

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Sort of looking forward to the game. On the other hand, the existence of the Tongan rugby league team has significantly undermined my interest in international rugby league, so I’m sort of torn between not wanting to give them any legitimacy but also wanting to smash them.

 

[Matua]

Sort of looking forward to the game. On the other hand, the existence of the Tongan rugby league team has significantly undermined my interest in international rugby league, so I’m sort of torn between not wanting to give them any legitimacy but also wanting to smash them.

Yeah, this is my reasoning too. And I want to watch a NZ team. The other thing that confuses me about this section of the forum (along with the Cameron George fluffing a couple of years ago) is how little posters seem to care about the Kiwis. When I joined I thought it would have lots of Kiwis discussion. We've only managed to eek out 5 posts so far.

 

[jaseg]

Yeah, this is my reasoning too. And I want to watch a NZ team. The other thing that confuses me about this section of the forum (along with the Cameron George fluffing a couple of years ago) is how little posters seem to care about the Kiwis. When I joined I thought it would have lots of Kiwis discussion. We've only managed to eek out 5 posts so far.

I don't remember this at all.

Jim Doyle? Sure. But tbf I barely even remember when George took over.

As for Kiwis discussion... it's a tough one. Kiwis threads in the past have had more traction. I suspect a lot of people are taking a break from league discussion after that second half on Monday. That, and there just hasn't been any Kiwis action long enough that maybe it'll take getting closer to the game before people start to be more interested in those discussions.

 

[Scott]

Pretty keen for -
1. J. Manu
6. D. Brown
7. J. Hughes
9. B Smith

 

[Matua]

I don't remember this at all.

Jim Doyle? Sure. But tbf I barely even remember when George took over.

As for Kiwis discussion... it's a tough one. Kiwis threads in the past have had more traction. I suspect a lot of people are taking a break from league discussion after that second half on Monday. That, and there just hasn't been any Kiwis action long enough that maybe it'll take getting closer to the game before people start to be more interested in those discussions.

I could only search back a year or two in the forum, so didn't find any of the fluffing posts, I remember it because I found it weird.

Yeah, we're still a while away from the match so hopefully the interest will pick up.

 

[doogiehowser_md]

Chances of Schuster being selected?

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Chances of Schuster being selected?

He isn’t interested, firmly in NSW plans

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Yeah, this is my reasoning too. And I want to watch a NZ team. The other thing that confuses me about this section of the forum (along with the Cameron George fluffing a couple of years ago) is how little posters seem to care about the Kiwis. When I joined I thought it would have lots of Kiwis discussion. We've only managed to eek out 5 posts so far.

I'll be honest, I lost interest after the 2017 World Cup debacle and never recovered it. Adam Blair can take a lot of the credit for that and his who gives a shit attitude, plus SJ's 'yous got what you wanted' rubbish

 

[Matua]

I'll be honest, I lost interest after the 2017 World Cup debacle and never recovered it. Adam Blair can take a lot of the credit for that and his who gives a shit attitude, plus SJ's 'yous got what you wanted' rubbish

I got over that pretty quickly as that was caused by the coach and fisheads. The Warriors have one of those debacles at least once every year.

Plus, I hate the Tongans (in a league sense, not in actual life) so welcome every chance we have to beat them.

Plus plus, I like to watch NZers playing together.

Plus plus plus, I'm not Australian so don't care about Origin so welcome something different.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

I got over that pretty quickly as that was caused by the coach and fisheads. The Warriors have one of those debacles at least once every year.

Plus, I hate the Tongans (in a league sense, not in actual life) so welcome every chance we have to beat them.

Plus plus, I like to watch NZers playing together.

Plus plus plus, I'm not Australian so don't care about Origin so welcome something different.

Nah to be honest, I'll be back once COVID stops getting in the way and we can have some meaningful fixtures. We're spoiled for NZ talent in the NRL, so I have no doubt we can put together a team that is competitive and hopefully also wants to gain back a bit of mana in the jersey and in international league as a whole.

I used to care about Origin and don't anymore, just not interested in a product that airs at 10.30pm on a weekday night. It seems contrived these days, as well.

 

[Matua]

I used to care about Origin and don't anymore, just not interested in a product that airs at 10.30pm on a weekday night. It seems contrived these days, as well.

I live in Sydney so have no issues with time zones. But about 10 or so years ago I realised that it was really detrimental to league in a broader than Oz sense, that I really didn't care who won, and despite the hype at that time it didn't have all the best players playing. Plus, any Kiwis involved in are dead to me as they chose Oz over NZ.

 

[Philip_Smith007]

Our best halves pairing still Hughes (Storm) and D Brown (Eels)
SJ should be nowhere near the team.
Basically a month out, when does a squad get announced?

 

[Beavers Headgear]

As the days and weeks go by with the Warriors it is obvious that we need a huge year from the Kiwis this year, or league in this country is on a slippery slope

 

[Scott]

As the days and weeks go by with the Warriors it is obvious that we need a huge year from the Kiwis this year, or league in this country is on a slippery slope

I note that the RLWC is going to be broadcast on Spark Sport. I'm not sure this is a good thing for RL in this country.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

I note that the RLWC is going to be broadcast on Spark Sport. I'm not sure this is a good thing for RL in this country.

It isn't.

Some suit will tell me I'm wrong, but streaming sports services do nothing to maintain strength in a code nationally - especially now, when discretionary income is so tight for so many people. You're asking people to fork out more money when they may have SKY already for the NRL, or potentially they can't afford it anyway.

I'm not particularly tight for money, and I am a massive cricket fan, but I don't generally buy Spark and that's the only way I can watch. So what for the semi-casual fan, who is tight for money? I won't watch the RLWC on my TV. I would if it was on SKY.

Beaver is right, we need the Kiwis right now. And a lot of people won't see them.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Shit I’d forgotten about that. Spark has been terrible for cricket and it will be the same for this World Cup. The beauty of the sky box for me is I can record it and flick through at a leisurely pace if I desire rather than watching every second, that is a pain in the arse on spark

 

[WellsNZ]

People have moaned about Sky's monopoly for years and wanting competition, now they're seeing why it can actually be a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, Sky has been a f**king dinosaur of a company, but having all your sport on one provider was always a blessing. What competition does there is segment out the content forcing you to buy more or miss out. Sky isn't going to suddenly become cheaper because they don't have the Black Caps home games, you'll keep paying the same and then tack more on top for Spark.

When I lived in the UK I was paying for Sky, BT and Premier to get the sports I wanted.

With the Premier League games were spread across different providers, so you couldn't even just have the one provider for following that. One week Chelsea is on BT, the next they're on Sky etc.