{"id":950605,"date":"2026-11-03T03:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T03:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950605\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T03:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T03:34:22","slug":"multiple-nrl-figures-hope-to-see-tonga-samoa-play-overseas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950605\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple NRL figures hope to see Tonga-Samoa play overseas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former NRL<\/a> player Alex McKinnion has suggested the Samoa<\/a> vs Tonga<\/a> match should be played overseas, believing the Test match could take rugby league to a level the sport has never seen.<\/p>\n

On Sunday night, Tonga<\/a> and Samoa<\/a> played at CommBank Stadium with 98% of the stadium full.<\/p>\n

The match has been declared one of the greatest sporting experiences, with many calling for an international State of Origin<\/a> match between the two sides.<\/p>\n

Tonga<\/a> defeated Samoa<\/a> 20-18 after Addin Fonua-Blake<\/a> scored the game-winning try in the 73rd minute, with the match going down to the final moments.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the game, fans took over Parramatta’s streets in their cars with flags everywhere.<\/p>\n

The Samoa-Tonga rivalry was even deemed bigger than Origin<\/a> by current NRL<\/a> stars in an interview with Zero Tackle.<\/p>\n

McKinnon is on holiday in Honolulu and has recommended that Tonga<\/a> and Samoa<\/a> should play each other in the islands, after being amazed by the fans’ takeover of Parramatta ahead of the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nuts and absolutely incredible \u2013 they literally took over the main street,\u201d McKinnon told The Daily Telegraph.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was literally my first thought when I saw all the cars and flags \u2013 play Samoa<\/a> and Tonga<\/a> here in Hawaii.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlay it at this time of the year with Halloween, and it would go crazy. The game would have a lot of people there. It would be an amazing success.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went out for Halloween because that’s quite big in Hawaii, so we approached the main strip where all these cars and utes with people in the back flying Tongan flags, beeping horns, yelling out, and doing the \u2018T’ symbol with their arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, all the Samoan cars came, people in the back of their utes doing the same thing. We went to dinner at a Thai restaurant for 40 minutes and could hear them the whole time. It went on for two hours and was about two hours before kick-off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TongaSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 01: Tonga fans show their support during the 2026 Men’s Rugby League World Cup match between Tonga and Samoa at CommBank Stadium on November 01, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In broadcasting terms, the match had an average television audience of 1.5 million viewers.<\/p>\n

The viewership broke the record for a non-Kangaroos match in rugby league history.<\/p>\n

On Channel 7, it reached 2.93 million viewers, compared with the earlier match between France<\/a> and Lebanon<\/a>, which reached 1.38 million viewers and an average of 703,000 viewers.<\/p>\n

The Australian Rugby League<\/a> Commission has previously attempted to take high-profile international matches like Tonga<\/a> and Samoa<\/a> overseas.<\/p>\n

There was hope for a Samoa-Tonga match in the United States, with proposals to head to Hawaii and Utah.<\/p>\n

A match between Australia<\/a> and Tonga<\/a> was almost locked in for New York and Hawaii.<\/p>\n

However, promoters stopped backing the proposal due to the operational costs of a match in the United States.<\/p>\n

Samoa<\/a> coach Ben Gardiner <\/a>echoed the idea to take a match to Hawaii and other US locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHawaii would be brilliant as would Utah, along with a number of other places in the US or Pacific,\u201d Samoa<\/a> coach Ben Gardiner<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no doubt that playing this game overseas would be a raging success. There is a huge Samoan and Tongan following throughout the world. People would turn up, and people are out in their cars parading.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a number of live site big screens set up for the game in Samoa<\/a>. There was this phenomenal presentation of fanfare. To get a game into one of these places goes with the NRL’s theme of expansion and taking games overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tonga<\/a> coach Kristian Woolf<\/a> also hopes to see the match explored in different markets around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking a game to Hawaii, or Utah, would be outstanding,\u201d Woolf said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would need NRL<\/a> support, but if the supporter base is there, it would be an outstanding opportunity for the game. The game is starting to make some inroads into the United States, so there’s a real avenue there for these two nations to accelerate that. There is a big Samoan and Tongan population in Hawaii.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October, it was reported that a five-nation franchise<\/a>, Mana Pasifika, hopes to lodge a bid to become the 20th NRL<\/a> franchise.<\/p>\n

Five venues were reported to be home games for the franchise, with Hawaii listed as a potential location.<\/p>\n

The Pacific rivalry has continued to grow in recent years, and the two sides could potentially rematch for the World Cup final on November 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NRL player Alex McKinnion has suggested the Samoa vs Tonga match should be played overseas, believing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-950605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950605","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=950605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}