{"id":474303,"date":"2025-10-07T19:07:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T19:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=474303"},"modified":"2025-10-07T22:21:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T22:21:16","slug":"tonga-coach-defends-very-humble-storm-star-after-fiery-sledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=474303","title":{"rendered":"Tonga coach defends 'very humble' Storm star after fiery sledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tonga\ufeff coach Kristian Woolf<\/a> says he suspects Stefano Utoikamanu has learned a lesson from his fiery grand final week sledge<\/a> in a defence of the Storm prop ahead of his debut for the Mate Ma'a.<\/p>\n

Utoikamanu featured in two Tests for Samoa in 2023 but the Melbourne front-rower has since switched his allegiance to Tonga.<\/p>\n

He was on Tuesday named in\ufeff a 21-man Tonga squad<\/a> for the Pacific Championships, beginning on October 18 and concluding with the final on November 9.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Addo-Carr earns Test recall as double blow injury rocks Kangaroos\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> $3m Haas powerplay revealed as rebel talks postponed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Four-player puzzle that could spark major Storm overhaul<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Utoikamanu enflamed grand final week when, without naming names, he labelled some Broncos players "stuck up".<\/p>\n

Going by the antics of Clive Churchill Medal winner Reece Walsh in the wake of Brisbane's grand final victory over Melbourne, the Broncos clearly used Utoikamanu's sledge as a source of motivation for Sunday night's decider.<\/p>\n

\"Stefano<\/p>\n

Prodded on the sledge in an interview with 9News, Woolf replied with a grin.<\/p>\n

"I listened to that interview and I thought maybe he could have\ufeff chosen his words a little bit better," Woolf said.<\/p>\n

"I'm sure he's learned from that.<\/p>\n

"He's a really good man, he's very humble, he's actually really quiet, and he'll fit into our camp very well."<\/p>\n

Utoikamanu is eligible to represent Tonga through his father, or Samoa through his mother.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old could have changed his allegiance to New \ufeffZealand, his country of birth, but doing so would have dashed the NSW prop's State of Origin eligibility.<\/p>\n

He grew up in Sydney's west where he played in Parramatta's junior system, also making him eligible for Australia.<\/p>\n

Utoikamanu will again square off with grand final nemesis Payne Haas when Tonga meets Samoa, after Haas defected from Australia to honour his mother's heritage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Storm<\/p>\n

Woolf named three Tonga debutants in his squad in \ufeffUtoikamanu, Roosters centre Robert Toia, and Warriors back-rowers Leka Halasima and Demetric Vaimauga.<\/p>\n

The selection of Toia follows a breakout season in which he earned a shock Queensland State of Origin call-up and claimed the Dally M Rookie of the Year gong.<\/p>\n

"He was quite emotional when I rang him," Woolf said.<\/p>\n

"You could tell straight away there was bits of silence and a bit of emotion in his voice.<\/p>\n

"What he did in Origin \u2014 I thought he was outstanding.\ufeff I thought he just got better and better with every game."<\/p>\n

Tonga will open its Pacific Championships campaign against Samoa at Suncorp Stadium on October 26.<\/p>\n

North Queensland superstar Jason Taumalolo and Cronulla powerhouse Addin Fonua-Blake will co-captain Tonga.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tonga\ufeff coach Kristian Woolf says he suspects Stefano Utoikamanu has learned a lesson from his fiery grand final week sledge in a defence of the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":474305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=474303"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":474307,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474303\/revisions\/474307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/474305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=474303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=474303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=474303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}