The Ikale Tahi Tonga pulled off one of the all time Rugby World Cup upsets last night, defeating France 19-14 at Wellington.
It was a result no one could have predicted but its impact is lessened by the fact that it won’t eliminate France from the tournament.
Canada would have to beat the All Blacks, with a four try bonus-point, in Wellington tonight for the French to fail to progress from Pool A.
That shouldn’t diminish the extent of Tonga’s achievement, though in beating France for just the second time.
The first being in Nuku’alofa in 1999.
Left wing Sukanaivalu Hufanga dived over for a try in the right hand corner, following a robust run by halfback Taniela Moa and then a neat crosskick from first five eighth Kurt Morath.
Tonga meanwhile bow out with two wins and two losses, in what has been an impressive tournament for coach Isitolo Maka.
Meanwhile, the Flying Fijians are giving away experience, weight and height advantage in this afternoon’s last pool game against Wales.
Fiji’s experienced player in the forwards is hooker Sunia Koto who has played in 32 Test matches while players like Waisea Nailago, Setefano Somoca, Rupeni Nasiga, Leone Nakarawa and Sakiusa Masi have all played less than 10 international games.
A combined 103 Test caps stands for the Fiji forwards while Wales have 329 caps, with prop Adam Jones and Gethin Jenkins playing more than 70 test for their country.
Fiji’s most experience players is fly-half, Nicky Little who will be playing his 70th Test and is best remembered for kicking the winning conversion in Graham Dewes winning try in the 2007 RWC.
Captain, Netani Talei is ready to lead from the front knowing they need to do better in this game to try and win back the confidence from fans.
The Wales and Fiji match kicks off at 5pm in Hamilton and a commentary of the match can be heard on our sister station, Viti-FM with the voice of rugby, Malakai Veisamasama and expert comments from Ilivasi Tabua.
In other results last night, England have snuck past Scotland 16-12 to virtually eliminate their great rivals from the Rugby World Cup.
After trailing for the vast majority of a tense match at Auckland’s Eden Park, a try in the 78th minute to wing Chris Ashton his sixth of the tournament carried England home.
Scotland led 9-3 at halftime and 12-3 soon after the break as they chased a victory by eight points or more they needed to qualify for the quarter-finals.
However, the English pack lifted its effort and England first five eighth Jonny Wilkinson discovered his radar to get them within range before Ashton’s late heroics.
Unbeaten England will qualify top of pool B and Scotland, who picked up a bonus point, can now only finish second in the unlikely event Argentina are upset by Georgia at 12pm today.
Story by: Dreu Vukailagi
