Jason Taumalolo leads Tonga’s Sipi Tau against England in the 2017 Rugby League World Cup semi-final at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium.
Photo: Anthony Au-Yeung / www.photosport.nz

By Nick Campton alphabet

Much of the discussion these days surrounding Jason Taumalolo is dominated by what he is no longer.

He is not one of the best players in the world, since he was in his best moment. He is neither the voracious meter-eater of days gone by, nor the late predator whose return to the field for his second stint should have been accompanied by the Jaws issue.

His feet are not as fast and his motor is not perpetual. He’s not the same player who signed a 10-year contract with the Cowboys in 2017 and is still receiving $1 million per season from that deal, something salary cap fetishists will never let forget.

None of this should be surprising. The moment comes for all of us, even for the greats, and Taumalolo is a lion in winter at 31 years old, which is what happens when you have spent 14 years running into the biggest, strongest and baddest players in this big, strong sport. and bad it has to offer. .

Only with Tonga do we remember what Taumalolo still is and always will be.

After their match against Australia two weeks ago. Many Tongan fans stayed long after full time, and most of them wanted a piece of Taumalolo. Even after all this time, he had enough ula lole to overwhelm even a man of his immense strength.

Children too young to experience his greatest feats gazed in awe at Tonga’s living legend.

The crowd, ready to rise to anything Tonga did well and having a new generation of stars to choose from, roared louder and longer as Taumalolo pounced on the ball and, for brief moments, looked every inch like before.

To his people, he remains larger than life, an icon and a pioneer, even if he is no longer the best player on the team. Tonga may one day have a better player, as difficult as it may be to imagine.

Sika Manu, Will Hopoate and Jason Taumalolo during the Tongan national anthem before the start of the match against the Kangaroos in 2022.
Photo: PHOTOSPORTS

When Taumalolo moved from New Zealand to Tonga on the eve of the 2017 World Cup, he was the best striker of his time and that is something difficult to match, much less surpass, but we say that about all the greats when they are at their peak.

What is certain is that no player will be able to do more for Tonga, even if they win the Pacific Championship, even if they win the World Cup one day. No one else can bring them to life because Taumalolo already did.

The national team existed before the Taumalolo change. They were no less proud than they are now and the thankless task of keeping the team alive in those difficult and unforgiving times paid off when Taumalolo had something to return to, but before that most Pasifika teams were more of a blip starting point for young people or an ending point for veterans.

We used to call them minnows. We sure don’t do it anymore.

More than racing or hitting or Sivi Tau, that is what will make Taumalolo live forever and why his status transcends age, form or time. That is why he is an icon not only of Tongan rugby league but of Test rugby league as a whole.

He is the most influential international player since the dawn of time, since the players who started all this more than a century ago because he, like them, was the first of his kind.

It has been seven years since Taumalolo opted for red and helped Tonga reach the semi-finals of that World Cup, enough time for the team to look completely different.

Only three players from that tournament, besides Taumalolo, are still on the Tongan team. Current teammates like Isaiya Katoa and Lehi Hopoate were barely teenagers.

Kiwis center Peta Hiku with Tonga forward Jason Taumalolo during Kiwis fan day at Lilyworld.
Photo: Brett Phibbs / www.photosport.nz

They experience a different world to the one Taumalolo arrived at, a world where a match between Tonga and the Kangaroos can attract 33,000 fans (the largest attendance for a non-World Cup event in Australia in a decade), as well as a bumper television audience. . .

This is a world where Tonga can tour England as a stand-alone attraction, where the idea of ​​New Zealand playing Tonga this weekend doesn’t seem like charity or goodwill or a glorified training run, but rather a marquee clash where passions are deep because honor is at stake. line.

This transformation began with him, due to the decision of one man, at the top of his game, to bring it all back home. Many followed his example, enough to turn Tonga into a new power overnight, but all followed in his wake.

For Australia and Tonga, the best is yet to come

Australia and Tonga fought over leather in the first match of the Pacific Championship, but the best of both sides – and the tournament itself – is still waiting to unfold.

That trail is still long and wide, and people still follow it. This new world he helped create has a future.

Although Taumalolo’s achievements as a player are closer to the end than the beginning, his greatest legacy is just beginning.

Samoa, who are currently on their own inaugural tour of England, have spoken at length about how their own revolution in 2022 was inspired by Taumalolo’s decision for Tonga and how for a whole generation of players the idea of ​​representing one’s heritage has been normalized and glorified.

It is an invaluable gift to rugby league, making this entire enterprise sustainable.

A golden pool of talent can keep a team going for one, two or five years, but for this to last, to create the framework that makes a representative side generational, there eventually has to be new blood.

That blood is almost upon us and a big change is coming for Tonga. Kristian Woolf will step down as coach at the end of the Pacific Championships, after more than a decade at the helm. This could well be the final tournament for the last pre-revolution stalwarts such as Tui Lolohea and Siliva Havili.

Tongan forward Jason Taumalolo with his family during Fan Day in Auckland.
Photo: Brett Phibbs / www.photosport.nz

It may not take long for Taumalolo himself to get the shirt, although you get the feeling he would play for Tonga for the rest of his life if he could and Tonga would be happy to have him.

For them he is more than a man, but as a man he is still more effective than he is given credit for. Taumalolo was strong against Australia, not that old force that once moved earth and sky, but who could be?

The game has changed since its glory days. The reset rule in place has sped up the game and made massive forward yards less prominent (in 2019, 18 of the competition’s 30 most prolific meter-eaters were forwards compared to just six of the top 30 in 2024 ), effectively reducing the impact of Taumalolo’s greatest strengths.

Regardless of the rule changes, Taumalolo was never going to enjoy the immortal final years that a great playmaker could find in his later years.

Center forwards don’t really understand that and no one who’s been doing this for as long as him could do it.

Given that Taumalolo debuted a few months after turning 16 in 2010 and is under contract until the end of 2027, when he will be 34, there’s a good chance that by the time he retires he will have spent around half of his life as a player. top-class footballer. All of that eventually catches up with you.

Until that time comes, he will remain at least an effective rotation forward.

He still has that gear that allows him to attack the ball and change direction so violently and quickly for a man his size that it seems to defy the laws of physics; now it only happens once or twice per game instead of a dozen or so.

Tonga will still need a bit of that classic against New Zealand this weekend. It is an important match for them because they can win.

The Kiwis have similar strengths in forwards and full-backs and similar limitations in creating play with their spine.

They are good enough that a win over them would be valued, but vulnerable enough that a win is possible and Tonga could do with another big scalp.

They have lost their last five matches, all against Samoa, England and Australia.

Such a losing streak is a sign of the increased competition they now face and exposure at that level is a net positive, but eventually they need the red meat of a good win to keep things going.

They can get one here because there is a lot of talent and individually they will be better for the run after the Kangaroos game.

They will need big games from Addin Fonua-Blake and Eli Katoa and an improvement from Isaiya Katoa, the young prince on whom so much depends.

This team is good enough that it doesn’t need a singular talent like a younger Taumalolo to sustain itself, but Tonga (its players, its fans, its people) will still follow it, and why wouldn’t they?

A lion in winter is still a lion.

-ALPHABET