NZ Herald: Tonga warm up match against New Zealand Māori in October

[Walter sobchak]

Odds would suggest Tonga will come back to the pack with other 2nd tier nations eventually.

That just makes it all the more important NZ strikes while the iron is hot by playing them pretty regularly, could be a huge rivalry while it lasts.

100% agree with this unfortunately. Tongan RL is just a myth and unsustainable in its current guise. The population of Tonga is only 100,000 of which RL has little to no footprint in terms of producing actual Tongan born RL players through a RL pathway compared to a nation like PNG that has a population of 8.5 million and growing every year that actually has a domestic competition and pathway for RL players that produces players for the hunters who play in the 2nd tier of Australian RL the Queensland cup. Plus PNG play regular home “tests” which Tonga do not.