{"id":102911,"date":"2025-10-27T04:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T04:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/102911\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T04:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T04:40:07","slug":"twenty-three-arrests-after-tonga-v-samoa-rugby-league-celebrations-in-south-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/102911\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-three arrests after Tonga v Samoa rugby league celebrations in South Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police also issued 204 infringement notices for driving- and road-related offences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis behaviour is not only unlawful, it poses a real risk to those participating in this behaviour, spectators, and members of the public,\u201d police said. <\/p>\n

\u201cPolice ask those who wish to celebrate to please do so in a lawful and considerate manner, to ensure the safety of everyone within our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police will continue to enforce lawful behaviour as officers follow up on information gathered over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Thousands of fans were expected to take to the streets in their cars, highly decorated in support of their island nation.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice will continue to enforce lawful behaviour as officers follow up on information gathered over the weekend. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

The \u014ct\u0101huhu and \u014ctara town centres were a sea of Samoan and Tongan flags as the much-anticipated rugby league match kicked off in Brisbane at 6pm yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this [police] operation, police saw a high volume of pedestrians and vehicles travelling within these areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice would like to thank the majority who celebrated peacefully and lawfully,\u201d the spokesman said. <\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice were monitoring \u201ca number of town centres that traditionally celebrate the two league teams\u201d last night. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Police Inspector Danny Mead earlier said he wanted fans to \u201ccelebrate safely\u201d but warned \u201cdisorderly behaviour won\u2019t be tolerated\u201d.<\/p>\n

He flagged that police would be out in force during the celebrations. <\/p>\n

Samoa had a dominant 34-6 win over Tonga XIII in Brisbane, a match where players were forced from the field for 90 minutes due to lightning strikes within the vicinity of Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

It was clear from the first play it was going to be a physical contest. Tonga was dealt an immediate blow when it lost debutant Stefano Utoikamanu after two minutes when he was forced from the field with a category one concussion, ruling him out of next week\u2019s clash with the Kiwis.<\/p>\n

Samoa were the livelier of the two sides and were rewarded when Izack Tago dived over in the corner after some razzle-dazzle play.<\/p>\n

Fortune continued to favour Samoa early in the second half, when Nanai regathered his own grubber to cross for his second try.<\/p>\n

Samoa came out swinging with Murray Taulagi, Payne Hass and Chanel Harris-Tavia all scoring to seal a commanding win, although Tonga had the last say when Tolutau Koula scored in the final minute.<\/p>\n

Raphael Franks<\/a> is an Auckland-based reporter who covers business, breaking news and local stories from T\u0101maki Makaurau. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police also issued 204 infringement notices for driving- and road-related offences. \u201cThis behaviour is not only unlawful, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,11924,31746,51,44183,5432,75031,2837,78,14731,10543,111,139,69,384,6327,5902,1240,213,165,53476,75030,3608],"class_list":{"0":"post-102911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-arrested","10":"tag-arrests","11":"tag-auckland","12":"tag-behaviour","13":"tag-between","14":"tag-celebrations","15":"tag-during","16":"tag-in","17":"tag-league","18":"tag-match","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-people","23":"tag-rugby","24":"tag-samoa","25":"tag-south","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-their","28":"tag-tonga","29":"tag-twentythree","30":"tag-were"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}