The rugby league season has officially come to a close and Australia will reign as kings of the Pacific after downing Tonga 20-14 to cap off a bumper quadruple header at Western Sydney Stadium.
With Samoa and Australia claiming the honours in the women’s matches and New Zealand running out big winners over Papua New Guinea in the final match of the day, here’s five quick hits from the action.
1: Tonga go the distance but Australia hold strong
It took everything Australia had, but in the end, their moments of craft just managed to get them home amid a fast start and a huge finish from the Tongans.
The Kingdom are too accomplished, too decorated and too dangerous to pull off an ambush anymore. Everyone knows exactly how good they are and exactly what they can do.
What they do is start matches like demons and it was the same here, with some classic power football from Jason Taumalolo and Addin Fonua-Blake setting the tone and allowing the space for Isaiya Katoa to create the first try for Sione Katoa courtesy of a fine piece of playmaking.
Once the game settled, the Kangaroos’ speed and finesse came to the fore. The Tongans struggled in transitioning from attack to defence and whenever the ball was in play for long periods, or when the game started to break down as fatigue set in, Australia found joy down the edges, especially through centres Tom Trbojevic and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.
At 20-4 to Australia, and with a couple of disallowed tries to boot, the game looked over but in reality, it was just getting started. It’s a mark of how far Tonga have come that they rose again.
Haumole Olakau’atu’s try gave the team, and the crowd, the jump start they needed and Eli Katoa’s effort, where he powered through a horde of green and gold jerseys, was nothing short of mighty.
A final deliverance did not come for Tonga, as Australia held on for a deserved victory and it’s all the more valuable because they had to fight for it.
Games like this are proof Tonga playing Australia doesn’t feel like an outreach mission anymore and Tonga no longer need miracles to compete with the best sides in the world.
2: Parramatta turns red amid Tonga takeover
Australia were put in a curious position because for one afternoon, Western Sydney Stadium was transformed into the 172nd Tongan island.
The Kangaroos were strangers in their own country as the red sea of the Kingdom dominated the stands — during the player introductions, each and every Australian player was booed long and loud and selling Tongan flags in Sydney this week would have been an easy way to get rich.
It turned what was already promising to be a high-quality match into a true spectacle. The emotion and connection of the crowd was palpable, no matter what was happening on the field, and in Tonga’s best moments it sounded like heaven had opened.
The current schedule is already full to bursting but it’s impossible to watch this and not want more of it. It’s not just Tonga, either — Samoa could attract a similar crowd and if the two of them meet each other, as they will during next year’s Pacific Championships, it promises to be the kind of game you tell the grandkids about.
International rugby league seems to constantly justify its own existence but if scenes like the ones on Sunday doesn’t convince of it’s worth, then nothing ever will.
3: Dearden stands tall to claim best-on-ground honours
Tom Dearden is a footballer who has a couple of dangerous weapons and knows exactly how to use them.
His dummy is wicked, he plays nice and straight and he’s got a fine turn of speed, enough so that he can hit a gap and blast past a grasping defender as he did throughout the win over Tonga.
He’s not yet the finished product as a half but that’s what makes him so exciting — he’s already good enough to win man of the match in a Pacific Championship final and the best may still be to come.
Dearden was excellent against the Tongans as he shredded them with that excellent running game and he marshalled the edge well.
He finished with three line breaks and three try assists to cap off a strong maiden campaign as Australia’s five-eighth.
4: Casey McLean enjoys dream Test debut
Casey McLean began the year playing in a Jersey Flegg trial for Penrith. He ended it by scoring four tries in his Test debut.
It’s all happened very quickly but when you’re as talented as McLean, life happens very fast.
A late replacement for Will Warbrick on the wing, the 18-year-old is the third-youngest debutant in Kiwi Test history — not that he looked like it.
His second try was the pick of the bunch as he pulled off a slick, one-handed grab to reel in a Shaun Johnson kick from close range.
His celebration with Johnson was poetic. The veteran halfback was playing his final game of rugby league in a career where he’s achieved so much and he dazzled to the last, cutting Papua New Guinea to pieces with a master’s touch.
McLean’s own journey is just beginning — he’s played just seven NRL games for the Panthers — but in terms of the next generation of Kiwi stars, there are few brighter prospects.
5: Jillaroos widen the gap with dominant victory
Even the truest of believers would have struggled to see the women’s final going any other way than an Australian victory as Brad Donald’s side earned a comprehensive 24-4 victory over New Zealand.
Australia were in control for the full 70 minutes and while the Silver Ferns were willing, a lack of execution meant they couldn’t take advantage of the few chances they were given.
It completed as dominant a campaign as Australia could have asked for. The Jillaroos outscored their opponents 122-4 across their three matches with the sole try coming with 90 seconds remaining in the final with the match well in hand.
They are the best team in the world by a distance and that distance will only grow wider as the NRLW continues to expand and more players are exposed to an elite environment.
Right now, New Zealand are the only side who can realistically challenge Australia — they did beat them only last year — but that was the Jillaroos’ first loss in seven years and the wait for the next one could be even longer.
The expansion of the women’s international game will take time and must be a grassroots effort. The likes of Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Tonga all getting games in this year has been a good start.
But the Jillaroos were already well ahead and are streaking further and further into the distance, with no sign of slowing down.
