Sione Katoa, one of many men embracing pride in representing Tonga, quietly goes about his business in a loud, crowded atmosphere.
What isn't many, but one, is Katoa after the game, where he scored two tries, nine tackle breaks, and ran 157 metres in a 36-0 victory over Lebanon, helping tidy the locker room and sheds with some of the Tongan staff.
Trying to end the night just like any other day had occurred when it really wasn't just a typical day; Katoa stood in a way that wasn't so much lively in the way you see extroverted natures in the game, but instead in the way quiet people like to go to the back of the room.
Speaking to Zero Tackle, the Tongan and former Cronulla Sharks winger admitted his true feelings about playing in front of huge, loud crowds, specifically 25,000 fans against the Lebanon Cedars.
"I get more nervous about the crowd sometimes. I just want to enjoy it, and they definitely help you," he told Zero Tackle.
At the same time, Katoa knows to move on from their victory over Lebanon and get ready for the next game.
'The one game at a time' approach.
Kristian Woolf, Tonga's head coach, was proud of his side's efforts and their attitude in preparations.
When Tonga began their preparations, they made one thing clear. No matter where everyone came from, it's time to lock in and focus.
With loud music from a big speaker, Isaiya Katoa wheeled out of the stadium, and families celebrating overpowered their sheds in Parramatta late at night; Tonga's passion continued to consume Parramatta's atmosphere until the next day.
Sione Katoa showed the philosophy that has made Tonga feel internally that they are building something special.
"We weren't too happy with our attack tonight, but there's a lot of areas that we can improve in," he reflected about the Lebanon game.
"It's good our defence won us the game tonight."
There is a simplicity in their mentality without removing the sessions of sweat and physicality.
The group has established a positive vibe day to day, enough that it doesn't strip who each person on the team is.
Slowly, he rises from his cocoon when asked about the anticipated sold-out match against Samoa on Sunday night.
"It's always a tough game against Samoa," Katoa stated.
"I think just that passion of the fans and the two cultures is exciting."
Katoa has played 148 NRL games, scoring 102 tries and debuted for the Sharks in 2018.
It's the only club he has been with, the only one he's familiar with.
The kind of comfortability that feels stable enough to hold onto for life.
The weight of the moment when the Sharks and Katoa couldn't agree on him staying at the club beyond 2026 carried into his performance, and in the sheds after the game, he rose from beneath his quiet surface.
Surprisingly, he showed, in an in-between-the-lines manner, the pain he had been carrying, to keep nostalgia and the good times alive in memory.
When asked whether he thought he would ever leave Cronulla and what made the North Queensland Cowboys the next place he would continue his rugby league journey, Katoa answered with an emptiness and strangeness of leaving somewhere you'd never thought you'd leave starting to come alive
"It's sad to leave," he admitted.
"The Sharks have been there for a long time.
"I thought I was [going to stay at Cronulla] and I wanted to, but unfortunately it didn't go the way I wanted.
"It's a different experience for myself and the family [heading to North Queensland and Townsville], and it's something I'm looking to do more."
For Katoa, his goal of playing in the NRL started as a dream; then it got closer and closer to grasp, becoming a goal.
When you spend a large part of your life turning the dream of playing in the NRL into a goal, and then the goal becomes the start of a new chapter, and it's happened in one place the entire time, and you spend a decade there, and now you have to move somewhere else when you wanted to stay; it makes wearing his heart on his sleeve difficult in a way, with the love and comfort he had for the Sharks and the Cronulla community.
Now, a new chapter in his rugby league career will start in Townsville after Tonga's World Cup campaign ends, whether that's with or without the World Cup trophy.
