OPINION: It may not feel like it right now, but Jason Taumalolo may actually have saved the NZ Kiwis from Rugby League World Cup embarrassment.
And far from "disrespecting" the black-and-white jersey, he has, in fact, paid it the highest compliment possible by walking away.
New Zealand will kick off their World Cup campaign this week against Samoa, but must already have their November 11 fixture against Tonga circled on their calendar, after Taumalolo and several of his countrymen made themselves unavailable for their adopted nation and declared their allegiances to the Pacific island.
Losing a player of Taumalolo's stature - remember, he was the NRL's joint Dally M Medal winner last year - was regarded as a crippling blow to the Kiwis' hopes earlier this month, let alone the others of Tongan heritage that followed him out the door.
The Tongan squad features at least 10 players who have represented New Zealand in recent years, including Taumalolo, Manu Ma'u, Solomone Kata and David Fusitu'a, who probably would have the cut for this tournament, and a smattering more that loomed as future candidates.
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Along with former Kangaroos Michael Jennings and Andrew Fifita, they now loom as potential giantkillers in this tournament, if they can harness that talent under pressure… which is a big 'if'.
Back in the Kiwis camp, though, coach David Kidwell and skipper Adam Blair perhaps should feel like they've dodged a bullet.
No New Zealand sporting team ever achieves success on talent alone - we simply don't have the numbers.
For us to finish on top of the world in anything, our whole must be greater than the sum of our parts, which is where team culture factors heavily into the equation.
Ah yes, the great intangible.
Culture let the Kiwis down badly in 2013, when several members of the team decided to experiment with sleeping pills and energy drinks, rather than focus on winning a world title.
The past four years have all been about rebuilding that faith, underpinned by the 'Te Iwi Kiwi' philosophy, which claims to embrace all the different nationalities that contribute to the collective effort - Pakeha, Māori, Polynesian and, yes Shaun Johnson, Asian as well.
But here's the rub - 'Te Iwi Kiwi' is still mainly about being Māori. The haka is tweaked slightly for each occasion, and may occasionally nod towards Pacific and European origins, but you can only guess how the Tongans might feel about staring down their brothers across the field and challenging them in a foreign language.
When NZ Rugby League announced the Kiwis would be sleeping on a marae during their World Cup build-up, you could just imagine the Tongan contingent wondering "is this really us?"
Thankfully, they went with their instincts and decided it wasn't.
Rugby league is a simple, but tough game, predicated on a rock-solid belief in the man (or woman) next to you having your back when it really counts.
If the man (or woman) next to you has any doubts about that, it's better to find out now, rather than in the heat of battle.
Laudably, Taumalolo, Ma'u, Kata and Fusitu'a have raised their hands and owned up, returning to a culture they can invest in and allowing Kidwell to replace them with others who would bleed for the black jersey.
International sporting eligibility is often convoluted and contentious, and league is certainly no exception.
The ability to represent two countries makes sense for a code that has only three clear superpowers and a handful of other teams that could be competitive, if they could consistently call on their best players.
Just because you've played a handful of tests for New Zealand or Australia, and then been tossed on the scrap heap, that doesn't necessarily have to be the end of your international career. There are other codes that could benefit from this kind of flexibility.
But when players are trying to decide which country to represent, the best rule of thumb is usually to go with your heart - do you 'feel' like a Kiwi or a Tongan?
Most of these players had already represented Tonga before they were even Kiwis, so they were never really ours to begin with.
Now that they've shown their true colours for this World Cup, it would be hard to accept them back into the Kiwis again, knowing their hearts aren't really in it.
Yes, it's time to move on and believe everything has worked out for the best… at least until November 11.
Newshub.
Grant Chapman is a senior online producer for Newshub.
