{"id":94629,"date":"2021-07-03T10:46:48","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T10:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=94629"},"modified":"2021-07-03T11:57:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T11:57:13","slug":"tongan-captain-in-tears-after-all-blacks-blowout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=94629","title":{"rendered":"Tongan captain in tears after All Blacks blowout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tonga's captain Sonatane Takulua was in tears after his understrength side were predictably torn apart in a 102-0 loss to the All Blacks in Auckland on Saturday.<\/a><\/p>\n

Tonga were fielding 13 debutants and missing many of their overseas-based stars as COVID-19 complications further widened the concerning chasm between rugby's haves and have nots.<\/p>\n

"A lot of people don't know what we're going through behind the scenes," Takulua said in his post-match interview with Sky Sport at Mt Smart Stadium.<\/p>\n

Stan Sport is your home for international rugby and the only place to watch the British and Irish Lions tour, Wallabies and All Blacks Tests and more. Start your free trial now!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Some of the boys are still in quarantine. We came here to do our best.<\/p>\n

"To all our supporters, thank you for taking time to come and support the boys. That's all we can do, give it our all. Hats off to the ABs."<\/p>\n

All Blacks captain Sam Whitelock also doffed his cap while reflecting on a scoreline that shouldn't bring anyone any pleasure.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Horrific injury ends Aussie star's Olympic dream<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> All Blacks star's surprise Olympics sevens snub<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Coach tasked with finding Wallabies' 'dark side'<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/danleo82\/status\/1411225294493556739?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/SamTalakai\/status\/1411249427709267968?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

"I just wanted to say thank you to Tonga for all the hardships they've been through," Whitelock said.<\/p>\n

"Obviously quarantine is not easy but they went out there and did themselves proud and I just wanted to thank them personally."<\/p>\n

The All Blacks scored 16 tries in their first Test of 2021.<\/p>\n

\"Sipi<\/p>\n

Winger Will Jordan was the star with five tries while centre Quinn Tupaea also impressed on debut.<\/p>\n

But it would have been hard not to look good in such a dominant team.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks play Fiji next weekend.<\/p>\n

\"Jordan<\/p>\n

New Zealand 102<\/strong> (Will Jordan 5, Brad Weber 3, Dalton Papalii 2, Damian McKenzie, Luke Jacobson, Richie Mo'unga, Rieko Ioane, Patrick Tuipulotu, George Bridge tries; Mo'unga 7 conversions, Beauden Barrett 4 conversions) Tonga 0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tonga's captain Sonatane Takulua was in tears after his understrength side were predictably torn apart in a 102-0 loss to the All Blacks in Auckland […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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\/94629"}],"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=94629"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94631,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94629\/revisions\/94631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}