{"id":647869,"date":"2026-11-01T14:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T14:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/647869\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T14:00:28","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T14:00:28","slug":"decorate-the-house-car-and-kids-excitement-for-rugby-league-pacific-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/647869\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Decorate the house, car and kids’: Excitement for rugby league Pacific showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last minute preparations are underway for Toa Samoa and Mate Ma’a Tonga fans on Sunday night. <\/p>\n

Despite the game being played in Sydney, New Zealand fans are far from deterred, flags have been flying off shelves in \u014ct\u0101huhu town centre. <\/p>\n

Bargain House store owner Garry Wang has been stocking up and staying open late. <\/p>\n

“Over two weeks, maybe over a thousand [flags] now, I think probably about 200, or so yesterday.”<\/p>\n

\"Bargain<\/p>\n

Bargain House store owner Garry Wang. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

He would not be drawn on what team has had more demand for merchandise. <\/p>\n

“This is a hard question, you know, we have a lot of the Samoa and Tonga fans here I think it’s equal you know.” <\/p>\n

One family 1News spoke to had travelled from Hamilton to find the right supporter gear. <\/p>\n

The Mother of a Tongan and Samoan baby son was buying a tiny Tonga jersey and flag. “He doesn’t have a choice,” she said.<\/p>\n

Others were buying Toa Samoa flags and jerseys down the road. “Decorate the car, decorate the house, decorate the kids,” one excited supporter said.<\/p>\n

For the past few weeks, fans have taken to the streets and motorways around New Zealand and further afield to show their support parading flags. <\/p>\n

\"Samoan<\/p>\n

Samoan and Tongan flags on a vehicle in Auckland. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

With a 10pm start time, restaurants and bars are also keeping their doors open late. <\/p>\n

Helu Vilikikihi Tongan restaurant was planning on staying open till 2am. <\/p>\n

“Yes, it’s going to be pretty busy like when the people do the parade,” said worker Leni Pousini. <\/p>\n

Despite serving Tongan food, she said the restaurant is expecting diners from both sides. <\/p>\n

\"Helu<\/p>\n

Helu Vilikikihi Tongan restaurant worker Leni Pousini. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“We have to support the Samoan we are friends we all come from the pacific islands.”<\/p>\n

It is not just pride on the line tonight the winner of the game will face the Kiwis in the semi-final.<\/p>\n

Police are showing their support but warning fans to still obey the law after cautioning several drivers in Tauranga last night<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last minute preparations are underway for Toa Samoa and Mate Ma’a Tonga fans on Sunday night. Despite the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[51,138,111,139,69,6430,213,1756],"class_list":["post-647869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-auckland","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pacific-islands","tag-sports","tag-tauranga-bay-of-plenty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647869","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=647869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}