Seemed to be a huge number of empty seats yesterday. Maybe NZ RL need CMG to lead a marketing campaign.

Do they have roundabouts in Auckland?

NZRL have never managed to grasp the nettle of marketing and as such, 25.5k in a 50+ stadium for a triple header at £12 a head will be see as "good". Reality is that without the Tongans from south Auckland (15K at my estimate), it would have been more embarrassing.

It was a fantastic day of Rugby and well worth the 18 hr drive there and back, but without the mercenaries in Red, it would have been a massive loss maker, round-a-bout flowers or not

You think they've chosen to play for Tonga for the money? The exact opposite is true, they've turned down $20K per game playing for Australia/New Zealand in exchange for £2,500 from Tonga. Several of them have spoken of the financials, but said they wanted to do it anyway.

1 Tongan born player, 11 of the 21 capped by NZ/AU/Samoa and the ONLY reason that they are a "revelation" is because a Kiwi international disagreed with 2 players being made unavailable for selection because they were filmed snorting coke.....not really the fairytale some would have you buy into.
Also, check the attendances for Tonga when played more than 70km's from South Auckland......they're as Tongan as the wolfpack are Canadian, but we cling to little gimmicks out of desperation rather than deal with the reality that international RL is reliant on ANZACS and Brits, with the French and PNG teams just flogging a dead horse when faced with a Tongan side that's not from Tonga!

As for the cash. Maybe JT might have expected to be selected this weekend by the ANZAC teams, but the rest got $2,500 rather than a day off....

Nonsense. Take a look at the recent rah rah World Cup and make a little (!) list of players representing countries that they were not born in. It happens in every sport. You just want to have a little rant as usual.

Best not mention hastings or Coote then.

Nonsense? Really?
Find me an international sporting side made up of 98% of the players not being born in the country they represent.

Yes, A Samoan scored Englands first try v the All Blacks, yes, a Kiwi hit the winning runs for England to lift the ICC Cricket World Cup, lifted by a Dubliner BTW......I am not naive enough to think that all sports don't have ringers, but 20 of the 21 man Tongan Squad weren't born in Tonga and 11 of them have represented other countries.....it's a sham and to declare it as anything other than that smacks of a desperate need to feel relevant.

In terms of Union. Japan had a 9 non born Japanese players in their 31 man squad at the recent RWC. one of those, the captain, has been in Japan since he was a teen and has changed his name to become more "Japanese" I'm not sure if there were any squads with a bigger number of ringers, but I sincerely doubt that any of them had 98% foreigners playing for them.

To decry my statistic as nonsense is in itself, nonsensical as you cannot argue with a statistic just because it makes you feel uncomfortable.

Here's another one for you.

Triple header in Auckland, featuring Australia, Tonga, GB, Samoa, NZ and Fiji.....care to hazard a guess as to how many Fijian, Samoan or Tongan born players were on show? 51 players in the 3 squads...12 of whom represented the country of their birth. Take the 15 Brits and you have 27 players out of 85 representing the country of their birth...31%.....the Japanese Union squad had 71% ....so yes, it does happen in other sports, but nobody does it like International RL!

Have always believed no matter what the sport is that you can only represent the country of your birth or the country either of your parents were born in. Nothing more, no residential qualifications or anything else.

So if you dont like any of those options, you cant play international sport. Easy really.

Agree with you here.

But, even 3rd+ generation Islanders identify with their "homelands", especially in terms of sporting occasions and I can see that such a small island nation as Tonga will have a bigger diaspora than its home population.

The major issue is that 11 of the 21 have represented other nations as well.

JT was selected for NZ (didn't get in the 19), then Played for Tonga, then New Zealand, then Tonga and the last change was because he disagreed with a management decision to exclude 2 players who were filmed taking cocaine.

As has been said to me, "other sports do it", but none to the extent that we allow it in RL

Not got a problem with an Australian born of tongan parents or grandparent playing for tonga, what I dont like is the chopping and changing, if you play for one nation then that's who you play for, you dont chop and change as it suits.
Ideally it should be you can only play for the country you were born in, but reality with that is RL would have a very very small international footprint.