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'I've been waiting for this': Kiwi back rower ready for 'emotional' test against Tonga

(Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

A sea of Tongan red will meet Joe Tapine when he represents New Zealand this weekend but the Canberra Raiders star could hardly be happier about it.

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In what will be the first professional rugby league match in NZ since before the pandemic, the Kiwis will host Tonga at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday in front of what is widely tipped to be a huge contingent of away supporters.

Tapine, whose sparkling form makes him a shoo-in to start in the NZ front row, said the entire experience of playing back in his home country would be an emotional one.

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“I’ve been waiting for this for a while,” he told reporters.

“To go to NZ, see my sister and my dad, it’s gonna be huge and I can’t wait to see them … it’s gonna be emotional, and it’s gonna be good to play in front of them.

“It’s gonna be a sea of red but I love it.

“The atmosphere is ridiculous, and even though they’re in red, you get signs like ‘We love Tonga but go Kiwis’, so they’re not bad supporters.”

Tapine’s monstrous campaign, in which he leads the NRL’s forwards in run metres and the entire competition in post-contact metres, prompted Canberra coach Ricky Stuart to suggest he would play a leadership role for his nation.

It’s something Tapine admitted he’d turned his mind to.

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“It’s one of my goals, to captain my country and the club,” he said.

“I’ve let Stick (Stuart) know it’s one of my my goals; I aim for big goals.

“I’ve been working on (leadership) in the last couple of years, but it’s kind of starting to show a bit more now. I’m happy everyone is seeing what I’m working at.”

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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