{"id":235245,"date":"2025-10-23T14:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/235245\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T14:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:31:12","slug":"stefano-utoikamanu-grand-final-sledge-tonga-v-samoa-pacific-championships-round-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/235245\/","title":{"rendered":"Stefano Utoikamanu grand final sledge; Tonga v Samoa Pacific Championships round 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stefano Utoikamanu won’t live down his infamous grand final week sledge<\/a> any time soon, with his Tongan teammates reminding him of his “unlucky” choice of words.<\/p>\n

The Storm prop stunned the league<\/a> in the build-up to the grand final as he delivered an unprompted jab at some “stuck up” Broncos<\/a> players, without naming names.<\/p>\n

It has been nearly a month since he made that bold statement and his words are still following him around. Only this time, he will meet those players on the global stage.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: How Anasta orchestrated two-club contract that rocked NRL<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ange replacement takes ‘fashionistas’ shot at first presser<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Star duo stand up with 180-run stand to rescue Aussies<\/a><\/p>\n

“We’ve been making fun of him every now and then while we are in camp,” Tonga co-captain Jason Taumalolo said of his teammates’ past actions.<\/p>\n

“But Stefano doesn’t need any more motivation going into this weekend.<\/p>\n

“He was a bit unlucky in the grand final, a lot of stuff has been said there, but I’m sure Stefano will learn from that<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

\"Tonga<\/p>\n

Tonga players in action at training.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Utoikamanu will meet the likes of Deine Mariner and Payne Haas for the second time in the space of month as he joins Tonga to face Samoa in the Pacific Championships.<\/p>\n

The highly anticipated clash will be the first time Utoikamanu has faced his former teammates, having previously represented Samoa in two Test matches in 2023.<\/p>\n

In 2025, the prop joined a chorus of other players who defected to Pacific Island nations.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 Pacific Championships live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Taumalolo was among the first players in the game to elect not to represent Australia or New Zealand in bid to join Tonga in their 2017 World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n

The move has since inspired a wave of big names to do the same, although Taumalolo refuses to take full credit for the growing movement.<\/p>\n

“I know a lot has been said about the guys going back to the little nations given the Origin eligibility, but for rugby league and international football it’s always great,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’m not going to take any credit for it, before me there were players who made the decision, and not just before me but alongside me.<\/p>\n

“For international rugby league, it is only going to get better, and the more you see these players go back to their country it puts a smile on my face.<\/p>\n

“It will make their country stronger, and I’m all for that.”<\/p>\n

Australia has only failed to make the final in the rugby league World Cup once in the tournament’s history, with the nation winning its 12th title in the 2022 edition.<\/p>\n

Samoa were the first Pacific Island nation to advance to the final at a World Cup, but were unable to withstand the power of the Australians in that 30-10 defeat.<\/p>\n

\"(C)<\/p>\n

(C) Addin Fonua-Blake and Jason Taumalolo (R) lead the Sipi Tau.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

As more players defect to Pacific Island nations, league greats have warned that a future where Australia does not feature in the World Cup final will near closer.<\/p>\n

Taumalolo was in no mood to predict if that scenario could unfold in 2026.<\/p>\n

“I can’t foretell what’s going to happen next year … [but] in a game of rugby league, anything can happen,” the North Queensland Cowboys star said.<\/p>\n

As for his looming rivals, Samoa’s Jarome Luai had full faith his team could win the title. <\/p>\n

“With the squad we have now, on paper, with the resumes, you sort of look through the list and you’d want to think [we could win the World Cup,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stefano Utoikamanu won’t live down his infamous grand final week sledge any time soon, with his Tongan teammates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-235245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}