Tonga V Aus 2018

[ManEagle]

I just Hope Hunt doesn't come on....

 

[manlyfan76]

Tonga paying nearly $4.
Tempting.

 

[HoldenV8]

We havnt lost two in a row since forever.

1978 Kangaroo Tour vs France.

40 years.

 

[wombatgc]

If Hunt comes on early again, and Mc Guire is left out there for anymore than 15 minutes, I think the Tongans have a real good shot. They have a real good coach in Kristian Woolf who has them playing to their strengths (power running, second phase play).
I don't want to see the Aussies lose again of course. But even with those that are unavailable, surely there is better than Hunt, and Mc Guire (RCG must be wondering the same.) I'm not as harsh on Gagai (sorry @HoldenV8 ). I believe Gagai should be centre, Tommy wing. When he made that bust, he was on the wing, it would allow Cherry to throw more cut-out passes to him. When DCE snuck through that gap near full-time and put it on a platter for Gagai, I thought heres a go. But he was f@cked (I know he did do a lot of return ball from our ten). But still I thought if that was Tommy it could've been interesting. (Ado-Carr would've been even better!).
The obvious game plan for the Aussies is go through the middle with Cook, Tedesco, Keary, and Hunt (no passing, just f@cking run). Then quick shifts to the wings. And I hate to say it (someone else mentioned it), but Jake needs to get out of the way for those shifts, he had too much ball at first receiver and stalled the attack imo. I'd like to see him running onto inside balls up the middle with Tedesco trailing him everytime.

 

[Tragic Eagle]

What the Kanagaroos failed to do against the Kiwis was to convert early opportunuties into points. We were well on top after 15 minutes. We should have been 18 points up. I am concerned that the pack was overrun by the Kiwis and the Tongan pack looks just as good.

 

[mickqld]

For the first time since the 92/93 Kangaroo tour of England I'm actually excited to watch an Aussie test match. Last year World cup was great with Fiji and Tonga but this will be enormous. The atmosphere will be electric. Just love to see the Tongans win but I have a feeling they'll falter badly.

 

[stoodamire]

I think the Tongan boys will start strong, but fade very quickly after the 60 min mark.

Emotion can only get you so far. Most of these big Tongan boys haven't played for over 6 weeks.

Also their halves are absolute rubbish.

If the Aussies can stay close with the Tongan's for 75% of the game, they should be able to run away with it at the end. Provided Ben Hunt does not go play in the halves.

 

[HoldenV8]

If Hunt comes on early again, and Mc Guire is left out there for anymore than 15 minutes, I think the Tongans have a real good shot. They have a real good coach in Kristian Woolf who has them playing to their strengths (power running, second phase play).
I don't want to see the Aussies lose again of course. But even with those that are unavailable, surely there is better than Hunt, and Mc Guire (RCG must be wondering the same.) I'm not as harsh on Gagai (sorry @HoldenV8 ). I believe Gagai should be centre, Tommy wing. When he made that bust, he was on the wing, it would allow Cherry to throw more cut-out passes to him. When DCE snuck through that gap near full-time and put it on a platter for Gagai, I thought heres a go. But he was f@cked (I know he did do a lot of return ball from our ten). But still I thought if that was Tommy it could've been interesting. (Ado-Carr would've been even better!).
The obvious game plan for the Aussies is go through the middle with Cook, Tedesco, Keary, and Hunt (no passing, just f@cking run). Then quick shifts to the wings. And I hate to say it (someone else mentioned it), but Jake needs to get out of the way for those shifts, he had too much ball at first receiver and stalled the attack imo. I'd like to see him running onto inside balls up the middle with Tedesco trailing him everytime.

Gagai to centre and Tom to the wing? I wouldn't disagree with that actually.

 

[Eagles2nv]

Game is a sell out already, 30,000 tickets.

The world cup and taumalolo (and others) playing for Tonga has really added some momentum to the Pacific island teams.

Good to see.

 

[ManEagle]

Game is a sell out already, 30,000 tickets.

The world cup and taumalolo (and others) playing for Tonga has really added some momentum to the Pacific island teams.

Good to see.

with 29500 screaming Tongan fans behind them.

I am actually looking forward to watching this match, now that we have had a run and blew some cobwebs out from the players that hadn't played for some weeks, I would expect Australia show dramatic improvement, that, with the extra momentum the Tonga team has had of late will make for an interesting match and will be a better indicator how we are travelling with the new faces than last weeks match against the Kiwi's.
Hopefully we can see a lot more time from Keary and a great deal less time from Hunt this game allowing DCE to have more control both sides.
Part of our forwards problem last week was they were up against it having the backs turn over possession to early and too often from the 15 minute mark and were blowing hard as they went to half time, I cant wait to see how they aim up against a pack that is their equivalent on many levels.
Hopefully it will be a good game with plenty of atmosphere after the poor crowd last week.

 

[Eagles2nv]

with 29500 screaming Tongan fans behind them.

I am actually looking forward to watching this match, now that we have had a run and blew some cobwebs out from the players that hadn't played for some weeks, I would expect Australia show dramatic improvement, that, with the extra momentum the Tonga team has had of late will make for an interesting match and will be a better indicator how we are travelling with the new faces than last weeks match against the Kiwi's.
Hopefully we can see a lot more time from Keary and a great deal less time from Hunt this game allowing DCE to have more control both sides.
Part of our forwards problem last week was they were up against it having the backs turn over possession to early and too often from the 15 minute mark and were blowing hard as they went to half time, I cant wait to see how they aim up against a pack that is their equivalent on many levels.
Hopefully it will be a good game with plenty of atmosphere after the poor crowd last week.

I think it also shows fans are just tired with the year on year Aust vs Nz. It's not the rivalry or hype like SOO.

I think we will start to see more involvement from PNG, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa in the international calendar.

It's pretty clear fans want it, and the players support it.

Not for anything, it gives alot of NRL players a rep Jersey when they wouldn't have got one, which leads to extra experience (also injury risk)

 

[HoldenV8]

One thing I don't get is some people (not in here) are saying that the Kangaroos are under done with players who haven't played in the NRL Finals and that it will give Tonga the edge in this game.

9 of Tonga's starting 13 haven't played since the final round of the NRL regular season either. And we do have last weeks game under our belts while some also have the PM's XIII game.

I'm still predicting a Kangaroos win with DCE man of the match.

 

[BrendonStarr]

Are these just "one off" test matches? Or will there be a final between the two highest ranked teams out of the three? And if not, will NZ be playing Tonga as well next week?

 

[ManEagle]

Are these just "one off" test matches? Or will there be a final between the two highest ranked teams out of the three? And if not, will NZ be playing Tonga as well next week?

One off matches, NZ vs Tonga will be next year sometime around June.

 

[HoldenV8]

The unfortunate thing about today's game is that DCE is in a no win situation regardless of the result.

Despite all the hype surrounding Tonga and their chances following the Kangaroos loss last week to New Zealand, if we win and win well, even if Cherry plays a leading role in that then his detractors will likely fall back to the "but it was only Tonga" line of thinking. If we lose, regardless of how it happens he's going to be absolutely crucified because other than Manly fans, it seems everyone is just waiting for him to fail.

No matter how good or bad he plays, win, lose or draw today he really is in a no win situation. We could win by 50 with Cherry scoring a couple of tries, hand out 4 or 5 more, kick a couple of 40/20s, make 30+ tackles and miss none.....and people are still going to claim that he shouldn't have even been picked.

 

[HappilyManly]

One off matches, NZ vs Tonga will be next year sometime around June.

Kiwis are now in the UK on a 3 match Test

 

[HappilyManly]

Game on now GEM chnl 192

Stay safe Manly boys

 

[manlyfan76]

Stadium looks great. Tongans must be proud with the support.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

I don’t think a RL test has ever featured the appearance of three Manly juniors in the one game before.

Admittedly one of them is playing for Tonga, but it’s still a fine achievement for our maligned juniors.

 

[lurker]

Geez that Tongan anthem. Talk about giving me goosebumps. Actually brought a bit of a tear seeing how much it meant.

This is rugby league at its best!