The last round of Group D kicked off at Middlesbrough everyone having a mathematical chance of making the World Cup quarter-finals.
Tonga went into today's game undefeated and looking to top the group on six points and meet France or Samoa in the quarters.. The Cook Islands, with one win behind them needed to win - and rely on the result of Wales's match against Papua New Guinea tomorrow night - to qualify.
Tonga welcomed captain Jason Taumalolo into the side for his debut, having missed the opening two matches.
READ MORE ON THIS STORY...
Tonga Finish Top of Group
The last round of Group D kicked off at Middlesbrough everyone having a mathematical chance of making the World Cup quarter-finals.
Tonga went into today's game undefeated and looking to top the group on six points and meet France or Samoa in the quarters.. The Cook Islands, with one win behind them needed to win - and rely on the result of Wales's match against Papua New Guinea tomorrow night - to qualify.
Tonga welcomed captain Jason Taumalolo into the side for his debut, having missed the opening two matches.
READ MORE ON THIS STORY...
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Post subject: Samoa Demolish France To Set Up Quarter Final With Tonga
Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2022 6:56 pm
RLFANS News Hound
International Chairman
Joined: Dec 05 2001 Posts: 0
Samoa Demolish France To Set Up Quarter Final With Tonga
The final game in group A was a ´do or die´ game for the runners up spot and a chance to play Tonga in the quarter finals as Samoa took on France at the Halliwell-Jones Stadium in Warrington with Samoa the firm favourites to take the spoils.
The bookies had given France a twenty-four point start on the coupon, but Laurent Frayssinous came into the match hoping that his side, packed with Super League stars would be able to spring a shock on Toa Samoa and Matt Parish´s group of NRL players.
Many neutrals were hoping the bookies would be right to set up a mouth-watering quarter final between Samoa and Tonga.
Samoa Demolish France To Set Up Quarter Final With Tonga
The final game in group A was a ´do or die´ game for the runners up spot and a chance to play Tonga in the quarter finals as Samoa took on France at the Halliwell-Jones Stadium in Warrington with Samoa the firm favourites to take the spoils.
The bookies had given France a twenty-four point start on the coupon, but Laurent Frayssinous came into the match hoping that his side, packed with Super League stars would be able to spring a shock on Toa Samoa and Matt Parish´s group of NRL players.
Many neutrals were hoping the bookies would be right to set up a mouth-watering quarter final between Samoa and Tonga.
RLFANS.COM news items are posted in forums where it is thought that they will be of interest to the readership, all comments made below will also be available for viewing through the front page.
Let's be honest, the group stages have been, by and large, blowouts. One or two close ish games, but mostly ridiculously one sided. It's important for the sport to develop but this isn't the way to do it, in my opinion. Not doing anyone any good.
Joined: Nov 19 2002 Posts: 13603 Location: West Yorkshire
But the reason there are blowouts is because teams like Samoa PNG and Tonga have got better, they have done that by playing and competing against better teams.
Blowouts happen in most sports WCs outside of football.
These blowouts are not as damaging as RL fans like to make out, we are now at the QF stage with far more competitive matches than we’ve ever had, everyone looks at 2013 as a success but the group stages had to have a ‘super group’ and the QF contained mis matches.
I believe Japan got beat by 100+ points not so long back in RU, now they are starting to compete, we need to stick with it not bin it at the first go.
Joined: Oct 09 2004 Posts: 15864 Location: Nottingham. 800 years ago outlaws stole from the rich. Little has changed here
christopher wrote:But the reason there are blowouts is because teams like Samoa PNG and Tonga have got better, they have done that by playing and competing against better teams.
Blowouts happen in most sports WCs outside of football.
These blowouts are not as damaging as RL fans like to make out, we are now at the QF stage with far more competitive matches than we’ve ever had, everyone looks at 2013 as a success but the group stages had to have a ‘super group’ and the QF contained mis matches.
I believe Japan got beat by 100+ points not so long back in RU, now they are starting to compete, we need to stick with it not bin it at the first go.
Agreed. Even football world cup has blow outs when someone like New Zealand get there. And there's loads in the RU version. I genuinely feared England would go out in the Quarters due to the strength of Samoa and Tonga. That's never been the case before. PNG will give us a real game on Saturday
The Eagle wrote:Agreed. Even football world cup has blow outs when someone like New Zealand get there. And there's loads in the RU version. I genuinely feared England would go out in the Quarters due to the strength of Samoa and Tonga. That's never been the case before. PNG will give us a real game on Saturday
Yeh, the good thing about the WC is that there is now more than 3 teams. Tonga, Samoa, PNG will all give the big guns a game. Most of the QF's will be competitive, not been like that for years. But unfortunately the other 8 teams or so are making up the numbers. And very disappointing that England are the only European team in the QF's. Wales, Scotland, Ireland and France need to try to catch up with the likes of Tonga, Samoa, PNG & Fiji.
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