rugby league

New Zealand Rugby League has received a draft copy of the review which will be presented to the board at the end of the month.

The Kiwis failed to make the semi finals of the tournament, beaten by Tonga in pool play and then eliminated by Fiji in the quarterfinals.

In a statement New Zealand Rugby League chair Reon Edwards said the panel's findings will be made public early in March 2018, however the Board has agreed to make two immediate changes.

Wing Savea appeared in the final Test against the British and Irish Lions on July 8 but was omitted by Steve Hansen for the Rugby Championship and the November internationals.

The 27-year-old has scored 46 tries in 54 Test appearances for the All Blacks – just four away from surpassing Douglas Howlett as the country's most prolific player.

Savea is contracted with New Zealand Rugby until the end of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, though he is seemingly open to switching codes with his place in the national team uncertain.

Damon Salesa, an associate professor of Pacific Studies at Auckland University, said rugby should have more Pacific people involved in its decision-making.

Fifty years ago there were 56,000 people described as Pacific living in New Zealand but by 2013 that figure had increased to almost 300,000.

In Auckland, more than one in four babies is Pasifika.

During the recent Rugby League World Cup, two Pacific nations, Tonga and Fiji, made the semi-finals, while the Kiwis missed out.

Six nations will compete during a three-match festival at Campbelltown Stadium on June 23. Tonga, Samoa, Lebanon and Papua New Guinea will be joined by two further teams to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Tonga sealed their second win in the tournament against Samoa on Saturday night at a packed-out FMG Stadium in Hamilton.

The stadium was a sea of colours as fans showed up to sing, cheer and dance for their Pacific teams. 

Woolf says the experience was one of a kind and it proves that Pacific teams are worth the investment.

"The first step I think is putting on more games. We'd love to play Samoa every year and I know they'd love to play us every year and I'm sure the fans would love to see that as well."

In an otherwise closely contested encounter, Samoa's sloppy ball control inside their own 20-metre zone gave Tonga a free pass to set up camp in attacking territory on a number of occasions, while four of their five tries came directly after Samoan handling errors deep in their own territory.

It contributed to Samoa finishing the match on the wrong end of a lopsided possession count, and post-match coach Matt Parish was fuming at his side's self-capitulation.  

With a 32-18 win over Samoa on Saturday night, Tonga made it two wins from two at the tournament and assured themselves of advancing beyond the group stage for the first time in five attempts dating back to 1995.

The victory in front of over 18,000 fans at Waikato Stadium was also just the second time Tonga have tasted victory over their Pacific neighbours in a rugby league Test match, with coach Kristian Woolf happy for his men to celebrate before re-focussing for their final pool game against New Zealand.

"To be fair, that's not a bad crowd in Ireland," says captain Liam Finn.

Finn may or may not surpass Bob Beswick – absent from this tour as his wife is expecting – as Ireland's most capped player during this World Cup tour, with the uncertainty due to the fact that he believes he has more than Beswick's 25 Irish caps already.

"Who's got more? Bob Beswick? I'm sure I've got more," says Finn, who on a number of websites is credited with 24 international caps.

Lafai's own personal form in 2017 started in a blistering pace, but along with the rest of Paul McGregor's men he has been inconsistent at the backend of the season. 

The former Bulldog put pen to paper on a new three-year deal with the Dragons in June and denied as a result he's taken the foot off the gas and become too comfortable. 

"It's a domino effect, if one player is off the rest can follow," Lafai told NRL.com.

"We got off to a great start along with myself but feel as though we've lost our way as a whole team.

Their fourth win on the trot was typical of a side coming off a five-day turnaround and the Panthers stayed in control for most of the contest despite a low-scoring affair.

Penrith kept the Bulldogs scoreless in the second half before nabbing two late tries through Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Tyrone Peachey to seal another much-needed win and edge closer to the top eight. 

"We are obviously defending well and that gives you a lot of confidence. But you only defend well if your attitude is right," Griffin said post-game.