Tonga Robbed!

[Walt Flanigan]

Loose carry IMO

 

[Foreign Legion]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/lo...ostleague-behaviour-despite-making-21-arrests

South Auckland police happy with post-league behaviour despite making 21 arrests

• Saturday night's nail-biter Rugby League World Cup game.
  
  Thousands of Tongan supporters dressed in red and waving flags once again took to the streets of Otahuhu and surrounding areas after Tonga's narrow loss to England, 20-18 at Mt Smart Stadium.
  
  Despite making 21 arrests throughout the evening for disorder-related offences, police said they were generally happy with people's behaviour following the game.
  
  
  
  
  DAVID WHITE
  Despite the loss, Tongan supporters were still in high spirits after a sensational comeback in the last 15 minutes of the match
  
  
  "It's been great to see the passion from Tongan supporters during the tournament and we are pleased that the majority of supporters behaved appropriately," said inspector Wendy Spiller of Counties Manukau police.
  
  READ MORE:
  * Tongan league fans put on joyous, brave semi-final face
  * Tonga's fervent fans
  * England ends Tonga's World Cup fairytale run in controversial finish
  
  "It's unfortunate that a small number of people threatened to spoil the occasion, however police took a zero-tolerance approach and ensured they were arrested quickly and removed from the area."
  
  
  
  
  DAVID WHITE / STUFF
  Dejected Tongan fans leave Mt Smart Stadium after their team went down to England
  
  
  She said the night was marred when a person smashed the window of a police car in Penrose around 10.15pm.
  
  Police were unable to immediately identify who smashed the window but inquiries were continuing, Spiller said.
  
  She said police were out in force in Otahuhu Town Centre and the surrounding areas on Saturday evening to ensure celebrations and commiserations ran smoothly.
  
  
  
  
  DAVID WHITE / STUFF
  Police said they were pleased with the behaviour of league supporters in Otahuhu and surrounding areas on Saturday night.
  
  
  A number of roads were closed to manage congestion and to keep pedestrians safe.
  
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  Caught in the fan-jam outside the stadium, Stuffvisual journalist David White said that compared to last week's victory, the Tongan fans were "a bit more muted but they're still pretty upbeat".
  
  "Their music's still playing, horns are still honking and flags are still flying, to a certain degree it looks like they feel they've won!"
  
  The 21 arrests made on Saturday night was significantly less than the 53 police made in Otahuhu on November 12, after celebrations turned ugly following Tonga's win over the Kiwis.

 

[Munted]

Western Sydney much quieter last night versus last week.
Tongans have a bloody obsession with their car horn it seems.

 

[Lemon Squash]

Loose carry every day of the week, player tackled him from behind so you clutching at straws to say he played at it.

All the argument in this thread is so dumb and over nothing.. I have no qualms with players representing their countries of heritage, they take great pride in representing their parents/grandparents etc but imo Pommy is 100% right that doesn’t actually make them Tongan or whatever country it may be.

I wonder how many words Fafita knew of the national anthem before this Tourament?

Let’s be fair dinkum if we didn’t let Aussies/Kiwis represent their countries of heritage we wouldn’t have a World Cup or if we did the standard would be an embarrassment.

Once again though I couldn’t care less because they put on some entertaining footy and played in front of massive crowds with great atmosphere and added a stack to the tournament.

If you want to blame anyone for the loss then blame Daniel Tupou.

 

[carcharias]

Loose carry IMO

I probably would agree
If they’d gone to vid ref and said loose carry I doubt there’d be too much complaining.
Although if they went the other way I would’ve probably been ok with that as well.

I don’t believe it was a knock on though.

 

[carcharias]

Loose carry every day of the week, player tackled him from behind so you clutching at straws to say he played at it.

All the argument in this thread is so dumb and over nothing.. I have no qualms with players representing their countries of heritage, they take great pride in representing their parents/grandparents etc but imo Pommy is 100% right that doesn’t actually make them Tongan or whatever country it may be.

I wonder how many words Fafita knew of the national anthem before this Tourament?

Let’s be fair dinkum if we didn’t let Aussies/Kiwis represent their countries of heritage we wouldn’t have a World Cup or if we did the standard would be an embarrassment.

Once again though I couldn’t care less because they put on some entertaining footy and played in front of massive crowds with great atmosphere and added a stack to the tournament.

If you want to blame anyone for the loss then blame Daniel Tupou.

Would you prefer Australia and NZ have all the players?

 

[deluded pom?]

Would you prefer Australia and NZ have all the players?

Read his post again.

 

[carcharias]

Read his post again.

I did

Bagged out Fifita by accusing him of not knowing the Tongan national anthem.
This is of course without knowing a single thing about the bloke and his family.

Did semi know the Aussie national anthem?

 

[Force]

I would agree to a loose carry if the tackler was playing at Fifita's arm or another part of the body and he drops the ball but Whitehead clearly had his hand on the ball (even if it wasnt intentional) and with Fifita going one direction and Whitehead the other, the ball is forced out of Fifita's grapse. At the very least, he should've taken it upstairs for a proper look not just end it at that. For me it was play on as what happened in the 2008 RLWC final, that try set the precedent so in that respect, this should've been a try as well.

 

[Exsilium]

Western Sydney much quieter last night versus last week.
Tongans have a bloody obsession with their car horn it seems.

I was cruising through Liverpool and there were huge numbers at krispy kreme. Riot squad, police helicopters and they were all relatively well behaved.

A lot of running between traffic with flags and standing on moving cars though.

 

[Force]

What many non-Pacific Islanders dont understand is we have a close connection to our home Nations even if we werent born in those Countries. You could see that with how the Pacific teams were supported throughout the tournament where you'll find the majority of those passionate fans would be born and or raised in NZ or OZ. So to call us 'not Tongan' or 'not Samoan' is incorrect, we identify heavily with our Nation of heritage probably even moreso than we do our Nation of residence or birth., hence the Taumalolo, Fifita switch.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

Tackler may have hand on the ball, but this does not automatically imply it is a strip. There is enough doubt between commentators and on the forum to suggest it is a 50/50 call, and the referee made his, and he is always right, especially when he is wrong. So be it.

Yes it probably should have gone to the VR, but realistically the end result should be the same and as others have said, having the english VR rule in favour of England would be an even worse look.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

Having sad that, if this was against Australia I would be absolutely livid. Go figure.

 

[Clarkent]

What many non-Pacific Islanders dont understand is we have a close connection to our home Nations even if we werent born in those Countries. You could see that with how the Pacific teams were supported throughout the tournament where you'll find the majority of those passionate fans would be born and or raised in NZ or OZ. So to call us 'not Tongan' or 'not Samoan' is incorrect, we identify heavily with our Nation of heritage probably even moreso than we do our Nation of residence or birth., hence the Taumalolo, Fifita switch.

Exactly what I was gonna to say... Most of these if not all players we're bought up the island way because of there parents being full blooded islanders that can't really speak much English... The idiot that said if fifita knows the national anthem of Tonga doesn't know shit... If you see him on Instagram most of he's videos are of him hanging out with hes tongan family... These guys feel more connected to there island roots because of the way they we're bought up by there parents

 

[carcharias]

What many non-Pacific Islanders dont understand is we have a close connection to our home Nations even if we werent born in those Countries. You could see that with how the Pacific teams were supported throughout the tournament where you'll find the majority of those passionate fans would be born and or raised in NZ or OZ. So to call us 'not Tongan' or 'not Samoan' is incorrect, we identify heavily with our Nation of heritage probably even moreso than we do our Nation of residence or birth., hence the Taumalolo, Fifita switch.

That is so true
Especially Tongans
My old suburb had an Anglican Church
It is now Tongan
They get there every weekend dressed in amazing bright clothes and do the same things they were doing in Tonga.
All of them with kids them would’ve been born here.
It is very cool.

It is the same for heaps of other nationalities as well.
I’m sure they’d much rather be living at home and getting the same wages they do here.

 

[Clarkent]

Tackler may have hand on the ball, but this does not automatically imply it is a strip. There is enough doubt between commentators and on the forum to suggest it is a 50/50 call, and the referee made his, and he is always right, especially when he is wrong. So be it.

Yes it probably should have gone to the VR, but realistically the end result should be the same and as others have said, having the english VR rule in favour of England would be an even worse look.

Right or wrong Tonga deserved the chance to go up to the VR... This is the decision to find out which teams go to the final and the ref didn't even send it up to the VR... If this was the NRL grand final the ref wouldn't even hesitate going up to the VR... Even if the VR said no try everyone would've been happy with that... As long as it was decided properly... But the idiot ref wanted none if that

 

[Force]

I hope this image shows up as Im not show on how to post pics. It shows Whitehead clearly playing at the ball and not the arm.

 

[carcharias]

Maybe it was all a ploy to smash the stinking poms in unison on the footy field and the cricket field.

 

[siv]

I was thinking more along the lines of NZ/Tonga/Fiji/Samoa in an Origin format. Everyone plays 3 games during the Origin period with revenue going to strengthen all four RLs.

Agree Top 4 Pacific Nations during SOO - NZ Tonga Fiji Samoa

Would add a 6 Nation Pacific Shield for teams 4 plus 5 others. Top team qualifies for following year eg Samoa, PNG, Cook Is, Niue, Solomon Is, Vanuatu

 

[Munted]

I was cruising through Liverpool and there were huge numbers at krispy kreme. Riot squad, police helicopters and they were all relatively well behaved.

A lot of running between traffic with flags and standing on moving cars though.

Haha yeah same as last week.
Heaps of idiots running in between moving cars, jumping into moving cars, hanging out of moving cars.
Saw a world cup trophy replica 50 times the size mounted to the roof of a car...

Smart lot.