Transcript
KRISTIAN WOOLF: I think the majority of those player who had decided to play for Tonga will play for Tonga in the future. That's all provided that as a game we can give them something to stay with Tonga for and there has been some conversations and we need some of those conversations to become actions. As long as we've got games going into the future and games that I guess are of the standard that we need them to be at now. Things have really changed and not just for Tonga but for all Pacific Island teams. You look at the quarter finals of the World Cup: four of the teams are Pacific Islanders. You look at your final four: half of that are Pacific Island teams as well, in terms of us and Fiji, so as long as the International Rugby League and the NRL want to continue to harbour that then those teams are going to continue to go forward and while there's games and while the players feel like they're getting respected for playing for those countries they will continue to play, that's for sure...I won't sit here and name players and go through discussions but the majority of those guys who made a decision they're going to play for Tonga have said that that's what they want to do in the future as well.
VINNIE WYLIE: At the moment you've got the Pacific Test, which has been going for five years and has been a raging success - that continues next year and I think you're playing Toa Samoa again. The Four Nations has been every couple of years: one year a Northern Hemisphere team joins the big three and the next time it's a Southern Hemisphere team - last time it was Samoa. Do you think tournaments like that need to be changed or updated because outside of that there's kind of nothing?
KW: The Pacific Test has been outstanding but it also needs to be updated and it's gone past what it was four or five years ago, when you look at ourselves, Fiji, Samoa, PNG, the growth of those four countries in particular at this World Cup and the success and the competitiveness against the big nations that all four of those teams have had. We certainly need to be playing each other on a regular basis still but we need to expand that Pacific Test and then we also need to have the ability to play some tier one nations at different times. For me an absolute no-brainer is that we as Tonga need to play New Zealand on a regular basis. That game in Hamilton, for a pool game, was absolutely outstanding as well and that needs to become a regular game on a yearly basis, I think.
VW: Can a match like that be played in Auckland every year - are New Zealand receptive to that?
KW: 100 percent. If New Zealanders don't turn up I know Tongans will, and I'm sure New Zealanders will as well. If you play that at Mount Smart every year and I think you get a similar crowd and a similar atmosphere to what we had on Saturday night. It's a grudge match now on the back of this tournament and I'm very sure that New Zealand would love to play us and would love to get one back on us and that's the way forward for Tongan Rugby League as well - the more we can play those quality games that's how we keep improving so that we don't just fall short in the semi final next time, we're actually able to win it.
VW: Tongan supporters and people watching that game on Saturday probably think you shouldn't have gone home and you probably should still be a part of that tournament. With a couple of days to reflect on that how does that decision and everything sit with you?
KW: It still sits the same as what it did after the game. Like a lot of other calls in that game I think it was a real 50/50 in terms of what the video ref might have decided. I've seen that (referees boss) Tony Archer has come out and said that he supports the decision and thinks he got the right decision but it is a 50/50 and under the pressure of the moment those decisions can go either way. There was plenty of other 50/50 calls in the game as well, if you think back to the Gareth Widdop try when Andrew Fifita I thought clearly got his arm under the ball. The referee actually said he thought it was a no try and the video ref over-rules that and that was very much a 50/50 decision as well. I can't believe that the referee doesn't go to the video ref. I think it's a really poor error and has a really big impact on the game. If he goes to the video ref and the video ref says it's a no try we all accept that a little bit more, even though everyone's going to have opinions as to whether it was a try or not, You certainly expect that a little bit more because the process has been the same as it has for every other opportunity that was a try in that game. As I said, I think that was a really poor decision by that referee and I think it just left a really big question mark over the finish of what was a terrific game of footy and a terrific night and a terrific atmosphere.
