Empty beer boxes, cans and bottles, plastic cups and broken glasses were left in Ōtāhuhu town centre streets after the Mate Ma’a Tonga fans celebrated following the Mt Smart rugby match on Saturday night.
The Kiwis beat Tonga 26-6.
The Ōtāhuhu Crime Prevention Facebook community page had posted several photos from the scene early this morning.
The photos triggered a public outcry with many describing it as “embarrassing” and “filthy”.
Some commenters on the posts accused some of the Mate Ma’a Tonga supporters saying people have to learn how to celebrate and keep the environments clean.
However, some patriotic Tongans and die hard Mate Ma’a Tonga supporters quickly jumped into action and a clean-up operation started.
“Some of us Tongans in the community turned up this morning with rubbish bags and helped out in the clean up from last night”, Tufui Fonua Kama wrote on Facebook after the operation was completed.
“Just wanted to say thank you all for your patience and understanding”, she said.
She also posted a few photos showing some of “the helpers and the rubbish we took home with us this morning”.
It comes after scenes from last night when the Mate Ma’a Tonga fans were out in Ōtāhuhu city centre celebrating what they said was a defeat but an excellent performance by their youthful team.
Earlier, a world record was broken as the Kiwi Ferns beat the Tongan women 50-12.
The crowd of 18,364 was the biggest ever for a women’s rugby league match.
