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Nasi Manu reflects on emotional return from cancer battle to make World Cup debut

Nasi Manu in action for Tonga. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Tonga loose forward Nasi Manu has admitted he was full of nerves and emotion ahead of his side’s 35-3 World Cup defeat to England in Sapporo on Sunday.

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Named on the bench for Tonga’s opening match of the tournament, the clash was the 31-year-old’s first game of rugby in 13 months after being diagnosed with testicular cancer.

The Benetton Treviso star had surgery to remove an abnormal growth last year, before enduring months of chemotherapy in what has been a long stint on the sidelines.

Prior to yesterday’s fixture, Manu hadn’t played since taking to the field for Tonga against Fiji last June, and missed the entire 2018/19 Pro14 season as he recovered from the illness.

Despite his severe lack of rugby, Manu was named in Tonga’s Pacific Nations Cup and World Cup squads after being given the all-clear to play again earlier this year, but didn’t feature at all in the tournament or his nation’s pre-World Cup fixtures due to a pectoral injury.

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The four-test international completed his remarkable comeback at Sapporo Dome, though, as he was subbed into the game in the 57th minute with his wife and daughter both in the stands to witness his maiden World Cup appearance.

“The whole day has been very difficult for me, just controlling the nerves,” Manu said post-match.

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“I couldn’t sleep last night, I just got too excited. I was telling my wife that I didn’t know what to do. I packed my bags five times.

“After five minutes on the field, I felt my legs were gone. No fitness can prepare you for that.

“I don’t know what Toutai [Tonga head coach Toutai Kefu] has planned for me for the rest of the tournament, but the other guys are playing so well.

“I have achieved my dream of playing in a World Cup, whatever happens, and I have so many people I can thank for getting me here. I can’t say names, because I am afraid I will miss some out.”

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Kefu added that Manu’s return to the national side was a source of inspiration for the rest of the squad.

“It’s been an emotional week for Nasi. We tried to lighten his load in terms of media and sponsorship commitments, but we all knew this was important for him.

“I just had a chat with him, and he said he was bloody tired and needs more game time. His lungs were gone, but I reassured him and said, ‘you’re lucky to be on the field’.

“Knowing him, he is a bloody competitive person and a bloody good player.”

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Tonga continue their World Cup campaign on Saturday when they come up against Argentina in Osaka.

With Kefu and his Tonga squad eyeing an unlikely quarter-final berth, the match acts as one the Tongans must win if they’re to secure their place in the World Cup knockout stages for the first time ever.

While they will rank firmly as underdogs for the clash at Hanazono Rugby Stadium, Kefu is quietly confident of his side’s chances.

“We didn’t play well against the All Blacks and caught them on a bloody good day, so we just needed to talk about a few things. The good thing is it meant we had to put ourselves under the magnifying glass,” he said.

“Today went much better – we had a gameplan, which we executed. They are a good team, they squeezed us in the first half and we couldn’t get into their 30 to throw any punches.

“We need to keep chipping away at our core skills under pressure. We are getting better, but there are some opportunities we are not taking advantage of.

“We stayed in the game really well, they just got away from us in the second half.”

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Bull Shark 1 hour ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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