Transcript
KRISTIAN WOOLF: It certainly hasn't been any real push from my end or anything like that. I'm always in conversations with those blokes about what they want to do and letting them know they've always got a choice, and as you said usually the choice is to go for one of the bigger nations. I think Jason's really been the catalyst for it and he's been the first to jump there and make a real stand. Obviously everyone knew he was going to be picked for New Zealand but he came out and said he was going to play for Tonga and gave his reasons why. I guess it just took one bloke to do that - and particularly a bloke of Jason's profile - and that certainly made other guys realise that that was what they wanted to do as well.
VINNIE WYLIE: When did you know Jason Taumalolo was a yes. He came out yesterday publicly to say why but was it only yesterday you found out? Was it only this morning you found out about Andrew Fifita?
KW: I literally found about about Andrew Fifita, Manu Ma'u and David Fusitu'a this morning at about eight-thirty this morning. I realise that these are really really hard decisions for these guys and we've spoken a lot about the difficulty of eligibility rules and eligibility as a whole, and how that's difficult for guys. I think these guys are genuinely torn in terms of what they want to do. It's a real privilege for them to play for Australia and New Zealand (but) it's a real privilege to play for Tonga and represent their parents and their heritage and that kind of thing as well so they're genuinely torn and because of that it's taken a long time for them to make their decision. In the case of a guy like Andrew Fifita I really didn't have him in the reckoning at all over the last few days, once I'd seen he'd been named for Australia. He actually rang me to say that he was considering changing but then he also rang me to say he didn't think he would and I supported him on that decision. It wasn't until this morning that he said that he really wanted to do it, he wanted to follow his heart. I know he made a phone call to Mal Meninga after that and Mal Meninga was extremely supportive of him, and he was very appreciative of that. I think that really set his mind at ease and helped him know that he was making the right decision.
VW: There is of course a lot of talk going around at the moment about the reasons behind (the decision to switch allegiance). We've talked about the passion these individuals have for Tonga but the fact that in the past these decisions went the other way so a lot of talk about disharmony in the Kiwis camp and the fact that all these players have banded together. You talk about Jason Taumalolo as a "catalyst" and that possible being a key reason why they've decided to commit to Tonga and not play for New Zealand?
KW: No one said anything to be about there being any drama with New Zealand. I know there's been a bit made of the decision around Jesse Bromwich and (Kevin) Proctor but not one player has mentioned anything like that to me at all. All the players that I've spoken to, in terms of their decision, has all been around playing for their family, playing for their heritage, the pride that they get and the pride that the family get when they play for Tonga - and that's not to say that they don't have the same pride with New Zealand but it's certainly very very strong with the Tongan boys. That's what all their decisions have been around, as far as I'm concerned, as well as the impact that they know they can make on young Tongan kids and being in a position to make decisions like that, and giving people the confidence to make decisions. I just think it's a really brave decision from those guys and, again, Jason is probably the catalyst for a lot of others but they're all brave in their own right and they're all making a lot of sacrifice in their own right as well. A couple of them have said to me that the big thing that they thought of, in making the final decision, was when they're standing there doing the haka, or the Sipi Tau in our case, how are they going to feel looking across at the team in front of them: whether they're feeling like they should be playing for that team or whether they're feeling like they should be playing against them, and that was a pretty powerful comment for me.
