Quote: 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.'"
Generally agree - I just sat enjoying the fact that I was watching a RL test match on the tv with a team other than Eng and NZ taking on Aus. Enjoying the fact that it was a packed stadium. Enjoying the fact there was clearly an amazing atmosphere, that came across throughout the game through the tv. The war dance atmos, the anthems, the hymns. Spine tingling.
Enjoying the fact that there was some great tries and great hits from both sides with 2 teams smashing into each other and a new team to most watchers getting stuck right into the Aussies for 80mins.
Yes they made some mistakes and bombed some chances but so what. Most enjoyable test match for a long time in my view and the importance of it as an event for RL should not be ignored. To have a 4th competitive (and it was competitive despite the final score) test nation in the mix would be great for the game.
We’ve been tonked (as have NZ) many times by Aus. Let’s hope they get more matches so that they can improve further.
Will Eng V NZ look as good and come across as good over the next few weeks? I have my doubts but here’s hoping.