{"id":541630,"date":"2026-03-15T08:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T08:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541630\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T08:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T08:49:21","slug":"dalton-papalii-responds-to-tana-umagas-they-dont-want-us-here-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541630\/","title":{"rendered":"Dalton Papali’i responds to Tana Umaga’s ‘they don’t want us here’ claim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Departing Blues<\/a> captain Dalton Papali\u2019i<\/a> has responded to Moana Pasifika\u2019s head coach Tana Umaga\u2019s comments during the week, claiming that the powers at Blues HQ \u201cdon\u2019t want us here\u201d.<\/p>\n

Papali\u2019i, who spoke to reporters in Auckland<\/a> post-match, said that as a playing group, they respect Moana Pasifika ,and the recent news is none of the players\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah Tana was a Blues man once helping us during the seasons when I first came in, so a lot of respect for them and their players, the Blues captain said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut whatever happens up in the offices and with the board, and that\u2019s none of my concern. Respect to these players and the coaches and we go to war against them, and they\u2019ve earned my respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut whatever the decisions happen with all the board and that\u2019s none of my concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blues head coach Vern Cotter said that it\u2019s just outside noise, and that the playing group has a lot of respect for Umaga\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, that\u2019s outside, today was just a game and it was about the players on the paddock and everybody that\u2019s involved in the people that came watched it,\u201d Cotter told media in Auckland.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they played well, and they had us very close at halftime. They had two tries ruled out, and so we have a massive amount of respect for them as a team, and we play them again.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ll take this one and we\u2019ll just move forward and see what happens next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Umaga told media during the lead up to the round five clash that throughout discussions with the club over their venue change for their game against the Chiefs, which was scheduled to be in Tonga, were made difficult by the Blues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if they realise there\u2019s two professional rugby teams in this city, but we do know they don\u2019t want us here,\u201d Umaga told reporters ahead of Sunday\u2019s clash between Moana Pasifika<\/a> and the Blues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got nothing against the playing group, nothing against the staff, because I\u2019ve worked in there, but the people that make decisions have made it very hard for us to survive over here. That\u2019s why they probably are our greatest rivals, because they want to see us not do well and not thrive. And I struggle with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen rugby is in a place where we\u2019re at, I struggle with the narrative that comes out of there last year that they believe they\u2019re representing the Pacific. Well, a Pacific team is here, but they\u2019re not willing to assist us or embrace us for the betterment of rugby. I do struggle with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why this game does mean a lot to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about whether the Moana Pasifika head-honcho regrets anything he said, Umaga is quick to explain that he was just stating the facts.<\/p>\n

\u201cNah, I don\u2019t know why we would not stand by those when it\u2019s what\u2019s actually happening. So you know what happened from those? And you know, I thought we started well, and maybe because we lost but it still doesn\u2019t detract from the fact that that\u2019s the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Departing Blues captain Dalton Papali\u2019i has responded to Moana Pasifika\u2019s head coach Tana Umaga\u2019s comments during the week,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-541630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541630","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=541630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}