Pool D: Australia defeat brave Tongans
(IRB.COM) Tuesday 9 June 2009
By Tom Chick
From Saga
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http://www.irb.com/mm/Photo/Tourname..._SQ_MEDIUM.jpg Tonga made Australia work hard for their victory - Photo: Kenju Demura
Australia remain in control of Pool D after beating a brave Tonga 40-6 at the Best Amenity Stadium in Saga on the second match day at the IRB TOSHIBA Junior World Championship 2009.
Despite leaving four-try heroes Richard Kingi – who scored a Junior World Championship record 26 points in their opening 86-0 defeat of Canada – and the elusive Kurtley Beale on the bench, a much changed Australia made a flying start with centre Afusipa Taumoepeau opening the scoring in the fifth minute after some impressive running from full back Dane Haylett-Petty. Nicholas White kicked the conversion to make it 7-0.
However, Tonga weren’t discouraged by Australia’s attack and were quick to hit back with a ninth minute penalty from Johnnie Morath-Hansen. Tonga backs showed their speed and running skills as the first quarter drew to a close, positioning themselves deep in Australia’s half but the defence held firm and kept their try-line intact.
Tonga did reduce Australia’s advantage to a point with another Morath-Hansen penalty in the 24th minute, but hooker Nathan Charles and wing Rodney Davies crossed for Australia to send their side in leading 21-6 at half time with White having converted both scores.
Australia, who are one of the favourites to be crowned champions in Japan, made the perfect start to the second half when wing Corey Brown made a great counterattack and passed to flanker Tom Murday to score the bonus point securing fourth try to make it 28-6 after 45 minutes following White’s conversion.
If the floodgates were expected to open then they didn’t despite Australia controlling the ball in Tongan territory and not allowing their opponents any space to again showcase their running skills. Australia did finish with a flourish, scoring 12 points in the final five minutes with tries from Davies and replacement Mark Swanepoel.
The margin of victory didn’t reflect Tonga's determined effort as throughout the passionate islanders chased and tackled Australia throughout the match and were unlucky not to be rewarded with a try for their concerted efforts in Saga.
Australia now look forward to playing Wales in the Pool D decider on Saturday, knowing that victory will see them head to Tokyo for the semi finals and a guaranteed improvement on last year’s fifth place. Tonga now turn their attention to Canada and ending the pool stages on a high with victory.
POST MATCH REACTION
Australia Coach David Nucifora: “Tonga was very determined and forced us to make mistakes. We are happy to come through without injury. It was a scrappy game, but we are happy to get a victory. For Saturday’s game against Wales, we would like to improve our ball control and a combination.”
Australia captain Matthew To’omua: “Tonga was a very physical team. We are happy to face Wales without losing any players by injury.”
Tonga Coach John Edwards: “We had no space to run and our scrum struggled to feed a ball to our backs. We made many mistakes, so we would like to improve that for Saturday’s game.”
Tonga Captain Halaleva Fifita: “It was a great experience for us to match up against Australia, who contained many players from the Super 14. We would now like to train hard and prepare for a game against Canada.”
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