International Pacific Championship

Highlights Only
Was at the game and blown away by the atmosphere

When the MMT anthem started everyone around our area (and I suspect the stadium) who were wearing red started singing

At the end of it I feared that the NZ anthem would be performed in silence but how wrong that was as the same folk who had just sung their anthem joined with those of us singing the NZ anthem and it was louder than the MMT anthem

It struck home to me that the Pacific Islanders who have made NZ home are as much NZers as they Islanders.

The kiwis scored the red flags were waved with vigour, the Tongans defended well the red flags were waved with vigour, the Tongans scored the crowd erupted.

A Tongan supporter 2 rows in front of us had a humongous Tongan flag that for good portions of the game obscured our view as he waved it whenever some action took place but I choose not to ask him to be “more respectful” of others for two reasons- 1) he was just enjoying his day at the footie supporting his team/s 2) he was a big bugger!!

Throughout the game there was spontaneous singing of Tongan songs (or I thought they were).

I’ve been to many grand finals, numerous rugby tests, Presidents Cup golf tournaments, Commonwealth Games etc. but I’ve never been in a crowd with as much atmosphere as was at Eden Park on Sunday.

If you ever get an opportunity to attend a game where a Pacific Island team is playing go, you won’t be disappointed
 

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Matiunz said:

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Geez how was he allowed to even take the field
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I said the same thing when I first saw the footage on here. He should never of played. He was k'oed! If I was Woolf, Whether the team doctors or Eli himself said he was good to go. Sorry doko, You're sitting this out. Don't take that Mate Ma(Die For)part literally. He is young and is one of the best forwards in the game. Prayers to him & his whanau. Get well soon !
 
The Warrior Waka said:
I said the same thing when I first saw the footage on here. He should never of played. He was k'oed! If I was Woolf, Whether the team doctors or Eli himself said he was good to go. Sorry doko, You're sitting this out. Don't take that Mate Ma(Die For)part literally. He is young and is one of the best forwards in the game. Prayers to him & his whanau. Get well soon !
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Might be he didn’t know how serious it was until later but Woolf has come across a bit flippant and dismissive when asked about it- not a good look
 
On Katoa, surely he passed the first in game HIA assessment which covered cognitive testing against their baseline?

Seems he was still testing ok (even if he shouldn’t have been out there after the other hits) but the third hit caused the worst damage?
 
Worried2Death said:
Just from the general commentary on brain bleeds and recovery time, I'm no expert but it's a life changing event with variable outcomes, hopefully full recovery for Eli. He won't be playing next season though, surely.
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1762199411968.webp

He’ll have a best seller when he puts this to pages. Might need to hurry to get it to screen if he wants Denzel to play him
 
tyrael said:
If he has good counsel, he should take an entire year off.
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It would be surprising to see him at all next year.

Equally it would not be surprising to hear he has been told no more Rugby league.

Against him is the triple assault on his brain from the three separate incidents. One of the risk factors from continuing to play is the risk of an initial assault causing a diminished ability to protect oneself from further assaults (the boxing standard - Ref stops fight as boxer fails to protect themselves).

While athletes can reset this risk after a decent rest, the need for brain surgery underscores this is far more serious than your standard mandatory time served on the sidelines scenario.

Another thing against Katoas return is the optics. As we learn that the NRL has launched an investigation into the incidents, along with the RL players association - pressure goes on his Neurologist now to take a conservative approach to his recovery.

If he were joe bloggs in the street, and he had the least invasive form of surgery, everything went well, he could be playing again next season. But he plays in the NRL, which is high speed, dangerous, big collisions, requiring of the player to have his full wits to protect himself.

It is pleasing that the RLPA have got involved.

We need transparency. I don't want to support a sport that is capable of nearly killing a bloke through willful negligence.

The decision to not get an HIA assessment after the knock out is as if Tonga were an airline that decided to ignore an engine fire (lets say engine one is on fire) on the runway before take off. "

Kristian Woolf from the control tower:
"We were in the control tower - we never saw the fire in engine one - when the pilot started engines two three and four they were working just fine so we cleared the take off".

"When engine two caught on fire we ordered the pilot shut that engine down - the plane passed a check that cleared those two remaining engines as running fine so we cleared the plane to keep flying"

"When engine three caught fire we immediately ordered the plane grounded - there was some difficulty landing on one engine but we got the plan safely to an emergency landing - I don't know what went wrong in the end when the whole plane burst into flames, we followed all of the checks and we had engines that were working still during the flight....even though we lost a couple or three along the way......."

Excuse the allegory but you get the point of where this situation nearly killed the bloke through wilful misuse of procedure and what looks now like a risk of further cover up by distancing themselves from blame.

And now the public are demanding to know who sends an aeroplane up in the air after an engine fire that was never checked by the engineers before take off?
 
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sup42 said:
It would be surprising to see him at all next year.

Equally it would not be surprising to hear he has been told no more Rugby league.

Against him is the triple assault on his brain from the three separate incidents. One of the risk factors from continuing to play is the risk of an initial assault causing a diminished ability to protect oneself from further assaults (the boxing standard - Ref stops fight as boxer fails to protect themselves).

While athletes can reset this risk after a decent rest, the need for brain surgery underscores this is far more serious than your standard mandatory time served on the sidelines scenario.

Another thing against Katoas return is the optics. As we learn that the NRL has launched an investigation into the incidents, along with the RL players association - pressure goes on his Neurologist now to take a conservative approach to his recovery.

If he were joe bloggs in the street, and he had the least invasive form of surgery, everything went well, he could be playing again next season. But he plays in the NRL, which is high speed, dangerous, big collisions, requiring of the player to have his full wits to protect himself.

It is pleasing that the RLPA have got involved.

We need transparency. I don't want to support a sport that is capable of nearly killing a bloke through willful negligence.

The decision to not get an HIA assessment after the knock out is as if Tonga were an airline that decided to ignore an engine fire (lets say engine one is on fire) on the runway before take off. "

Kristian Woolf from the control tower:
"We were in the control tower - we never saw the fire in engine one - when the pilot started engines two three and four they were working just fine so we cleared the take off".

"When engine two caught on fire we ordered the pilot shut that engine down - the plane passed a check that cleared those two remaining engines as running fine so we cleared the plane to keep flying"

"When engine three caught fire we immediately ordered the plane grounded - there was some difficulty landing on one engine but we got the plan safely to an emergency landing - I don't know what went wrong in the end when the whole plane burst into flames, we followed all of the checks and we had engines that were working still during the flight....even though we lost a couple or three along the way......."

Excuse the allegory but you get the point of where this situation nearly killed the bloke through wilful misuse of procedure and what looks now like a risk of further cover up by distancing themselves from blame.
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We already follow a sport that has killed in the likes of Keith Titmuss in preseasons gone and he’s not alone. Largely why Josh Schuster has struggled in recent years since the passing of his best mate in preseason getting flogged. Quite unbelievable that that didn’t get huge exposure, but Hasler had questions posed to him in a courtroom. These guys know the risks involved but at the same time should be able to rely on a bipartisan person to make the correct ruling because if it’s up to player or coach, the player will likely take the field. Will be a tough situation for him because he loves his nation, but staff in his nations team have let him and his wife and family down
 
Noitall said:
We already follow a sport that has killed in the likes of Keith Titmuss in preseasons gone and he’s not alone. Largely why Josh Schuster has struggled in recent years since the passing of his best mate in preseason getting flogged. Quite unbelievable that that didn’t get huge exposure, but Hasler had questions posed to him in a courtroom. These guys know the risks involved but at the same time should be able to rely on a bipartisan person to make the correct ruling because if it’s up to player or coach, the player will likely take the field. Will be a tough situation for him because he loves his nation, but staff in his nations team have let him and his wife and family down
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And we are assuming he wanted to play on.

It could be that the pressure from others sees a player run out there that is scared....it could be Eli knew something was badly wrong from the start....but was hoping someone in authority would say hang on this bloke got knocked out cold....

How many of us have been in that position?
 
sup42 said:
And we are assuming he wanted to play on.

It could be that the pressure from others sees a player run out there that is scared.

How many of us have been in that position?
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I’m not all over the rules, but he had a second rower at 18th man? Surely an incident like the one in warm up brings 18th man into play? I’m really not seeing any way Tonga can defend what they’ve done here? And Woolf has lost huge credibility from everywhere that I’ve seen
 
Noitall said:
I’m not all over the rules, but he had a second rower at 18th man? Surely an incident like the one in warm up brings 18th man into play? I’m really not seeing any way Tonga can defend what they’ve done here? And Woolf has lost huge credibility from everywhere that I’ve seen
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Having been called to a few enquiries into serious incidents, some involving deaths, I can say with experience that people react to questioning in a wide range of ways.

What I never had to deal with, was microphone being shoved in front of me immediately following the shock of the incident.

What seems like distancing by Woolfs tone (definitely is distancing himself in those comments) could be covering his ass - or it could be that he is in shock and is upset by being asked questions while he is processing the distress - it could be his off handedness is anger at being asked stupid questions, which you can forgive someone for.

Bottom line, whatever was said or not said, something stinks. And the smell starts when Tongan trainers (allegedly) fail to pass the knock out up the chain during the warm up.

And if the Trainers are innocent? if they sounded the alarm? then the Doctor and the Coach if they were made aware should have the book thrown at them in court. They should be sued in a occupational health and safety suit.
 
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