Jerome Ropati

Uh, but they went on this incredible run towards the end of the season, and if you look at the New Zealand team, five out of the seven, like if you count the halves as part of the back line, five out of the seven starting members of the back line are from the Warriors.

So you got Lote Tuqiri, Simon Mannering, Jerome Ropati, Marty Tatavale, Nathan Feen.

So it's very much a Warriors dominated back line, and that back line was going into the tournament in very good form.

So that's the background on the different squads going into the game.

So you had from pool A three teams make it through, from pool B one team make it through which was Fiji.

Uh, and then second and third in pool B would play against each other in a semifinal which was always destined to be a New Zealand-England rematch.

And then in the England-New Zealand rematch, Jerome Ropati scored two tries as they won 36-22 which meant that it was a New Zealand-Australia grand final, or World Cup final I should say 'cause it's the international game, in Suncorp Stadium.

And as you mentioned before, Sam, the game began with a very well done haka.

I reckon they're both, both very much, uh, very alike.

You know, obviously, like you said then, they play power games, and off the back of that they've got some pretty creative players in their spine, too, of, like Izzy Kapetua at half for Tonga, and Jerome Ropati for Samoa there in the half, too, and, and whoever else.

So sort of putting that spine there for those sides are gonna be exciting.

So yeah, like I said, it's gonna be, there's gonna be some, some real good competition for, um, to get the result and, uh, yeah, it's gonna be exciting.