And that appears set to involve some serious off-season graft between the pair, whose friendship stretches back to their teenage years.
Pangai Jr’s move to The Wire for 2026 was confirmed in July, with the prop signing a one-year deal having spent the 2025 campaign with Catalans Dragons.
It is a move that will see him play alongside Yates at senior level for the very first time after the two spent many of their formative years together in Newcastle, New South Wales.
They played in the Newcastle Knights junior grades together before Pangai Jr moved to Canberra Raiders, from whom he moved to Brisbane Broncos where his senior breakthrough arrived.
“I went to school with Tevita and he’s a really, really good friend of mine,” Yates recalled.
“He moved up to Newcastle when he was 14 so we started playing some junior stuff together around then.
“I went to Hunter Sports High with him and then we both moved back to Lambton High to have another couple of years there.
“His family moved to Canberra after that but I’ve always stayed really close with him.”
While both are no doubt relishing the opportunity to play together again, there is some serious work to be done before then.
It means Yates is set to go into “personal trainer mode” when Pangai Jr arrives from France, but he believes the front-rower is coming with the right frame of mind.
“We’ll be doing a lot of training together – I’m not going home and he’s not either, he’s coming straight here from France,” he said.
“He’s coming with a good mindset – he’s been speaking to Gards (Ade Gardner, Wire head of performance) about where he needs to be when he comes in.
“I’ll be back and forth to here through the off-season to train with him before we get into pre-season.”
The aim is for Pangai Jr to get back to – or something close to – his destructive best, when he was regarded as one of the world’s premier front-rowers – he played State of Origin rugby league for New South Wales as recently as 2023 and has six caps for Tonga under his belt.
He has not hit those heights in Perpignan, so is Warrington the right environment for him to do so?
Yates reckons that will be the case not just for his great friend and future teammate but for several Wire players.
“We need to get him fit and motivated, and I know the guys here will – we’re going to have a big, big pre-season coming in,” he said.
“We’ll get him fit and flying and I know he’ll be a big force next year.
“With the mentality we’re going to be in for next year and the way things will be run, I think we’ll see the best of a lot of our players.”