Kristian Woolf is excited to bring Tonga back to St Helens

Games will be played at Saints, Huddersfield and Leeds in the autumn - we caught up with Kristian via teams this week.

MC: Last time Tonga were in St Helens, you did a lot of community visits, including dozens of schools, are hoping that those people you reached will turn out for this first Test in particular?

KW: Being back in St Helens is outstanding. And obviously I couldn't be prouder of my association with the team, but also St Helens the town.

I would hope that that means something to the people. And we really look forward to seeing some of the people there again.

We’re certainly going to have some players from St Helens and some involvement there.

I would like to think that the Tonga squad left a great mark. We did get to a lot of schools and we did get to a lot of clubs and the players really enjoyed their time there.

And it was really well appreciated by the people of St Helens.

I'd like to think that we're playing in front of three sell-outs – or very close to sell-out crowds and that's what I think the Test match of this sort of standard certainly deserves.

MC: Fantastic for international rugby league this to get this level of test series on this autumn?

KW: I think it's been important because we had that three-year break where there was no international football and I think it's important that we get a little bit of a roll on now.

The World Cup was great and it certainly generated interest was really competitive - the most competitive we've seen in the World Cup and had some different people going really well.

That’s all really good for the international game but I think it's really important that we keep that rolling and keep that going.

There's a really exciting opportunity for Tonga.

We've never had the opportunity to be invited to tour the UK or to play a three-game series against anybody.

So it's a very historic occasion for us - it's a very proud occasion for us and it's a bit of a grow-up moment for us that we do get opportunity to be the headline team and play a play a series rather than a one off Test match.

MC: Test series were always such an integral part of rugby league but we have gone away from that. Do you think this series can actually rekindle that strong feeling for Test match rugby?

KW: I hope so. I've got the pleasure of working with Jesse Bromwich at the moment and just in conversation only a couple of weeks ago, him and his brother Kenny were talking about their experiences of tours to the UK with New Zealand and playing three-game series and they couldn't speak highly enough of their experiences. T

They said that it was some of the best experiences they've had in terms of rugby league in general but certainly international rugby.

That's certainly the way that all our players and particularly some of the older players have had some experience with different teams and different nations. That's how they're all feeling.

And you know they're really looking forward to it.

The fact that you get to play a really strong nation three times, you get to experience that big game and then go into another game where you start to build a little bit of rivalry.

You get to know each other and understand each other and you're trying to figure out new ways of trying to win - I think all that adds to the excitement as well.

Three or four weeks is a really good length of time to be in the UK as well.

I know our players are jumping out of their skin to get over there.

MC: Did you feel a little bit disappointed with Tonga’s World Cup?

KW: We were really disappointed. We didn't think that throughout the World Cup that we really hit our potential.

There are some things where we probably weren't quite at where we've been if you go back to 2017, 18 and 19 in particular, and the levels that we hit there, so we were disappointed.

If you look at the squad that we had, it was probably more talented than what we had in 2019 and that makes it a little bit more disappointing.

We didn't quite reach our potential or play to our potential and it's not about when you win or lose, it’s about playing to our potential and that's what we didn't do. Doing that in the UK is something that we haven't done so well if you look at our history over the last 10 or so years.

We need to learn how to get over there and play at our potential as well, ahead of the next World Cup in France, and that's a big part of this tour.

We certainly want to make amends for our disappointments in the World Cup.