Photos by Caroline Manu-Moli and Eleanor Gee

Mate Ma’a Tonga players were in a jovial mood at their first training session together at Pangai Lahi today, 13 October, in Nuku’alofa, Tonga.

The strong bond forming among the players was evident on the field with a lot of laughter, talk, and hi-fives on completion of their strenuous workout.

Mate Ma’a Tonga Head Coach, Kristian Woolf, said they are happy to be in Tonga to prepare for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup and connect with the community.

In addition to that, he said it was also a good opportunity to get away from the recent attention given to high profile players such as Andrew Fifita and Jason Taumalolo in Australia and New Zealand when they chose to join Tonga's team.

“Obviously there has been a lot of press in Australia and New Zealand and it’s been a really good opportunity for us to get away from that and focus on ourselves and everyone here is really positive. Everyone in Australia and New Zealand aren’t quite the same at the moment.”

Tonga is now seen as a threat to tier one teams in the World Cup and expectations are high on them reaching the quaterfinals and even going beyond that.

“Just because we’ve named some really good players and some really high profile players certainly doesn’t mean that we’re going to get success,” said Kristian.

“We have got a very talented side and what we really need to do now is work really hard so that we can perform.”

“I’ll be really disappointed if we don’t play in the quarterfinals,” he said.

“We have a squad that can certainly do that.”

However focussing on the first game is something Kristian says they cannot lose sight of, which is what they fell short of in the 2013 World Rugby League Cup when they lost by 2 points to Scotland.

“I mean we all want to make the quarterfinals and we all want to make the finals. That is certainly my goal.”

He said the team needs to focus on their first game against Scotland in the upcoming World Cup.

“That’s the most important one. They’re a team that’s under the radar a bit at the moment and there’s not too much talk about them at the moment. And that’s not dissimilar to what it was in 2013, they’re actually very dangerous.”

“If we start worrying about quarter finals or Samoa or New Zealand or any of those other games before we focus on Scotland, we may end up with a similar result,” he said.

“There’s a lot of potential in this team and so the only way we’re going to reach that potential is how hard we work while we’re here, and how hard we work when we get back to Australia and start preparing to play.”

The team consists of a good blend of players with every one of them having played a lot of NRL or Super League including some finishing recently from the final series of the NRL and Super League.

“They certainly know how to not only handle big games but also how to perform in big games and I think we’ve got that in this team so we will handle that well,” said Kristian.

“In terms of the pressure, there’s obviously going to be a lot of expectation and the most expectation is going to come from ourselves.”

The team will join a colourful parade with family, friends and the community through Nuku’alofa tomorrow morning.

They leave for Australia next Tuesday to carry on preparation for their warm up game against Italy on Friday, 20 October prior to Tonga’s world cup opener against Scotland on 29 October..