{"id":374120,"date":"2025-12-27T01:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T01:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/374120\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T01:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T01:47:08","slug":"2026-rugby-league-world-cup-what-will-tongas-24-man-squad-look-like-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/374120\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Rugby League World Cup: What will Tonga&#8217;s 24-man squad look like? &#8211; NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/2026-rugby-league-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 Rugby League World Cup<\/a> (RLWC) is less than 12 months away and every nation will be looking to dethrone <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/australia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a> to become the new world champions and hold the title of World Cup winners.<\/p>\n<p>After reaching the final of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/2024-pacific-championships\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2024 Pacific Championships<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/tonga\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tonga<\/a> will look to make their mark this time on the RLWC stage and boast one of the best forward packs among all countries.<\/p>\n<p>Their squad is set to be made up of a combination of rookies such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/isaiah-iongi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Isaiah Iongi<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/robert-toia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Robert Toia<\/a> and veterans such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/addin-fonua-blake\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Addin Fonua-Blake<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jason-taumalolo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jason Taumalolo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the status of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/keaon-koloamatangi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Keaon Koloamatangi<\/a> remains unknown at this stage after he represented <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/australia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a> at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/2025-ashes-series\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2025 Ashes Series<\/a> despite playing the most recent World Cup in Tongan colours.<\/p>\n<p>In what is a different squad from what was named for the 2022 RLWC, only 13 of the 24 members are set to return for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/2026-rugby-league-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 Rugby League World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Predicted Tonga squad for 2026 RLWC<\/p>\n<p>        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n        &#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; The 2026 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC) is less than 12 months away and every nation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-374120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374120","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=374120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}