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| Quote Sir Kevin Sinfield="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Strongly disagree. Tonga’s players haven’t had a game for between 4 and 7 weeks, obviously they are a bit rusty. If Tonga played England next week they’d win comfortably.'"
Boo hoo? That’s how the international structure works, Tonga’s set completion for the first half was around 58% and you can disagree all you want Jean; it’s simply not good enough and as I said, not the same side they were 12 months ago.
Tonga didn’t beat England last year and certainly wouldn’t with the Wakey boys now in the England squad.
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Club Coach | 7152 | No Team Selected |
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| Australia were the better side but not a patch on usual Australia standards, certainly not in attack or kicking. Their defence, however, had to be good today. The difference was their execution.
As for Tonga, we saw the outstanding physicality and athleticism of last year's Tonga, with the execution of Tonga 10-15 years ago, especially when they started chasing the game. Far too much one-man rugby, glory-seeking and poor decision-making, even if their aggressive discipline has come on massively. Passion is great, but execution is a must.
For me Tonga lost that game more than Australia won it. They handed them too many points with defensive ill-discipline and handling errors, and took the wrong option in some excellent opportunities. Rectify some decision-making and they would easily be within 6 points of the Aussies, especially this Aussie team.
That said, their physicality and aggressive running alone would be a severe test for England - although let's not forget Australia and NZ are a massive physical test and modern England are rarely out-muscled.
But what an occasion. Nothing can beat that. It shows what international RL done well can be. It's also been great to see the game all over social media today. Also reinforces just how well England did last year to nil them for 72 minutes and to hold out for the win (even with a farcical last 5 minutes), when arguably Tonga played better than today.
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Player Coach | 3726 | No Team Selected |
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| I was lucky enough to be at the semi-final last year and can attest that a full-house of Tongans ( plus a couple of thousand England fans) resulted in an atmosphere I've never experienced before in 50 years of watching RL. Even on TV you could feel it yesterday. More of the same, please, especially as its obvious that Tonga's fans will turn up in numbers to see them play.
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International Star | 4091 | No Team Selected |
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| Quote Asgardian13="Asgardian13"I was lucky enough to be at the semi-final last year and can attest that a full-house of Tongans ( plus a couple of thousand England fans) resulted in an atmosphere I've never experienced before in 50 years of watching RL. Even on TV you could feel it yesterday. More of the same, please, especially as its obvious that Tonga's fans will turn up in numbers to see them play.'"
There needs to be a Four Nations between Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and England in 2019
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| Quote Sir Kevin Sinfield="Sir Kevin Sinfield"There needs to be a Four Nations between Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and England in 2019'"
Would have to be another year because of the return of Great Britain and the Ashes series.
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| Quote Nothus="Nothus"I will never get tired of watching the south sea islands play. The atmosphere in that stadium was unreal, I had goosebumps as they all joined in to sing the national anthem and also the hymns they sang during the match, I love it.
As for the actual game I think they were just lacking a bit of match fitness and weren't clinical enough with ball in hand. You need an almost perfect completion rate when you play the aussies and they had to do far too much defending.
I think Tonga have some world class players but there are still a couple of key positions where they aren't quite strong enough to be a serious threat in the international competitions.'"
Pacific islanders, south pacific islanders if you must, no such thing as south sea islanders, its a common mistake i know, but its like calling a Scot, scotch as in egg or whiskey.
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