Tonga look to make it two from two against Wales

After a thrilling victory against Papa New Guinea, Tonga can cement their place in the quarter finals with a victory over a deflated Welsh side on Monday night.

Tonga scored a late try in their last match to seal the two points on offer in round one. They are now the strong favourites to win group D. Wales lost to the Cook Islands the night after, giving them a colossal task to make it out of the group.

Although Wales showed a lot of promise and heart in their defeat, and cannot be overlooked, Tonga are the clear favourites and could make light work of this fixture. They are a side littered with talent from the NRL and have the makings to go all the way in this year’s world cup.

Wales will need to pick themselves up from a disappointing defeat if they want to get a result on Monday. Failing this, they will be all but out of the competition.

Playmaker and captain Elliot Kear, will need a standout performance in particular to rally his teammates, as Wales look to get their tournament going, and end a run of eight straight losses in world cup fixtures.

Tonga have only ever made it out of the group stage once in their world cup history. This was in the last edition back in 2017, when they won all of their group stage matches and made it to the semi-finals.

They have only been on the up since then, improving their squad whilst their fans travel around the world in support. Star forward Keaon Kolomatangi praised that support that his team has had since arriving in the country:

“We have the best fans in the world, and it means everything to us.

“I was surprised when we landed in London, there was so many people, I didn’t realise there would be that many people over here so that was pretty mad.”

Kolomatangi scored the try in the 77th minute that sealed victory for Tonga in their last match. He went on to say:

“I’ve always dreamt of playing for Tonga, to score the match winning try in my first world cup game was pretty crazy, and it’s something I’ll never forget.”

The two sides have never met before so the history books for this fixture are about to be created.

Tonga vs Wales will be live on BBC on Monday night, kick off 7:30.

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