Lea'aetoa faces punishment over Kiwi remarks

A Tonga forward is to be punished for suggesting the islanders would deliberately set out to injure All Black players in the World Cup.

With Tonga and New Zealand clashing in a group match at Brisbane on October 24, prop forward Tonga Lea’aetoa told a Sydney newspaper that he and other Australia-based members of his team planned to hurt the All Blacks “to soften them up for the Wallabies”.

The plan. he said, was to “make life easier for the Wallabies” who could meet the All Blacks in a semi-final.

Lea’aetoa alleged there was resentment among his team-mates over New Zealand poaching Tongan players.

“I’ve been talking to the other boys and we want to go out and hurt them (the All Blacks),” he said

However, possibly fearing a Kiwi backlash, Tonga’s World Cup coach Jim Love has insisted that Lea’aetoa had not expressed “a team point of view“.

And he vowed to discipline the player.

“The guy has gone and shot off his mouth. He isn’t even sure of a place (in the team) yet,” added Love.

Over half of the Tongan squad who assemble in New Zealand this week for a World Cup camp play their club rugby in Australia and New Zealand.