The Rugby World Cup is dominated by the teams such as New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, France and Wales but the matches involving the so-called lesser nations offers hope of more competitive tournaments in the future.
In the 2011 tournament so far we have seen promising performances from teams such as the Argentina, the USA and Canada but the games played by Tonga has also provoked interest.
The Tonga “Sea Eagles” have had a couple of tough games to start with. They began with a match against New Zealand in the opening game of the competition and fought hard throughout. The All Blacks triumphed as expected but the final score of 41-10 was less one-sided then many had anticipated.
Indeed, the Tonga team coped reasonably well with the competition odds-on favourites and although New Zealand were comfortable throughout the game the Sea Eagle left with their heads held high.
The second match for Tonga was against Canada and the game was a much closer affair. Tonga were expected to win but Canada scored two tries in just 12 minutes and went on to win the match 20-25. Whilst the performance from the Tonga team was disappointing there were patches of quality play.
Tonga were back to form in their third match against Japan. The final score of 31-18 was an accurate reflection of the game and both sides could take some positive aspects from the game. The Japan team put in a spirited match but Tonga proved too strong for them and ran in three good tries.
The final pool match for the men in Tonga Cup Shirts will be against France and the Polynesians will be hoping to put in a much stronger show.
Whilst France are solid favourites to win the match many pundits will be looking to Tonga to show more of the type of rugby that they are capable of.
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