Halifax ace Adam Tangata tells how team-mates’ visa donation helped him stay

NO WONDER Adam Tangata was smiling even though Halifax did not pull off one of the Challenge Cup’s biggest shocks – if it was not for his team-mates, he would not even be in the country.

For they used their winning bonus from an earlier win to pay for his visa.

Told by Widnes he would not have a job months after joining during their financial meltdown, the prop faced being shipped back to either Australia or his native Cook Islands.

But Fax, where he spent four years previously, came calling again and after the money from March’s 28-24 win over Hunslet covered the £635 needed for the Home Office, Tangata went back ‘home’.

“It’s as plain and simple as that,” he said. “This club gave me a lifeline to stay in this country and play rugby league.

“I was pretty much called into a room and told I’ve not got a job but the players here sacrificed their win pay against Hunslet.

“They said, ‘If he’s going to come back, we’re going to contribute to get him a visa. He’s one of our own, we’ll bring him back.'

"At the time, I was having major surgery on my pectoral muscle which made it hard to find another club as I'd be out for months but then coach Richard Marshall opened the door for me to come back."

Halifax held the runaway Super League leaders at 2-2 until James Roby’s try on 35 minutes, with Dom Peyroux, Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages opening the gap to 26-2.

But Simon Grix’s Championship part-timers stole the show, with questions of ‘How many will St Helens win by?’ turning to, ‘Will St Helens win at all?’

However, Tangata – still playing for a contract for 2020 – insisted: “No outside influence affected us as we believe in ourselves and if we could put our best foot forward, anything could happen.

“The fact we probably won’t be at this occasion again in our lifetimes is what got us through. We came early to watch the game before and just soaked everything in.”