{"id":243655,"date":"2025-10-27T07:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T07:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243655\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T07:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T07:36:08","slug":"live-updates-tonga-v-samoa-rugby-league-pacific-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243655\/","title":{"rendered":"Live updates: Tonga v Samoa rugby league Pacific Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toa Samoa have booked their spot in the Pacific Championship final, overcoming Tonga – and the weather – for a 34-6 victory at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

Second-rower Jeremiah Tanai scored a try double, but play was delayed by a spectacular lightning storm during the second half, as organisers discussed the possibility of abandoning the game.<\/p>\n

Playing without powerhouse forward Jason Tamalolo, Tonga suffered another early blow, when front-rower Stefano Utoikamanu suffered concussion that will rule him out of next week’s encounter against NZ Kiwis.<\/p>\n

Centre Izack Tago scored first for Samoa, when he dived over in the corner, after some last-tackle sleight of hand.<\/p>\n

Nanai chased a kick towards the posts and rolled over in a tackle to extend the margin, as the Samoans led 12-0 at halftime.<\/p>\n

Tonga had their chances, but could not make anything of them in their first appearance of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Instead, Nanai struck again after the restart, again on the last tackle, as he kicked between defenders and chased the ball down for his second try.<\/p>\n

Five-eighth Isaiah Iongi had chance to get Tonga on the scoreboard, when he kicked ahead and chased, but he was unable to gather the bounce behind the tryline, with no-one around him.<\/p>\n

Midway through the second half, players were ushered off the field and spectators urged to shelter, as a lightning storm struck the venue. They returned about 90 minutes later, after the weather cleared.<\/p>\n

With their first possession after the resumption, Samoa put the contest beyond reach, when a touch pass from five-eighth Blaize Talagi put winger Murray Taulagi into the corner.<\/p>\n

Front-rower Payne Haas barged over, while NZ Warriors utility Chanel Harris-Tavita provided the cherry on the cake for Samoa.<\/p>\n

Winger Tolutau Koula finally put Tonga on the board with a try and they must now regroup to face New Zealand at Eden Park next Sunday, requiring a 17-point win to set up a Samoan rematch in the final.<\/p>\n

Follow the action here:<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n

\"Izack<\/p>\n

\nIzack Tago celebrates a try against Tonga.
\nPhoto: Zain Mohammed\/NRL Photos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toa Samoa have booked their spot in the Pacific Championship final, overcoming Tonga – and the weather –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,1590,63,1589,44,1591,1588,1586,1587,760,85],"class_list":["post-243655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-audio","tag-australia","tag-current-affairs","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243655","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=243655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}