Tonga ride red wave to topple Lebanon - just
EBRACE yourself Auckland. The Tonga party continues at the Rugby League World Cup after a creaky, knife-edge 24-22 win over plucky Lebanon in a cracking quarterfinal in Christchurch.
Tonga failed to score a try in the second half after grabbing four in the first and generally lacked the fluency of their win over the Kiwis with the Cedars – $12 outsiders – staying in the fight till the final whistle at AMI Stadium yesterday.
Coach Kristian Woolf will be only too aware the Mate Ma’a will have to raise their game to beat England in the semifinals despite David Fusitu’a scoring two tries to give him five in the last two matches.
Credit for Tonga’s struggles should go to a spirited Lebanon side, led around the park NRL stars Robbie Farah and Mitchell Moses.
They gave their all – and slumped to the ground in despair at the end.
Lebanon coach Brad Fittler had quipped beforehand that his side was full of builders, plumbers and cafe owners.
Unfazed, the Cedars’ parttimers stood up against their vaunted Tongan opposites, led by the NRL’s $10 million Jason Taumalolo, the overwhelming crowd favourite.
Parramatta skipper Tim Mannah and Wests Tigers rookie Alex Twal gave Lebanon some vital go-forward up the middle and Twal and Bulldogs hooker Michael Lichaa tackled themselves to a standstill.
Yet this was always destined to be Tonga’s day. The Pacific kingdom’s fans lit up the ground as they had in Hamilton for the clashes with the Kiwis and Samoa.
There were more red flags in the Addington arena than for a Crusaders final and the Tongan tumult was much noisier with just 8309 in the ground.
Riding the red wave, Tonga scored in the fourth minute when Tuimoala Lolohea crossed after neat work by Konrad Hurrell and Fusitu’a.
The Cedars struck back when teenage centre Adam Doueihi, a Rabbitohs under-20 player, broke a tackle and stepped a defender off the back of a second set of six.
Fusitu’a flashed over near the end of the first quarter and fullback William Hopoate struck soon after to give Tonga a 10-point lead.
But some Moses magic gave the Cedars a sniff. The Parramatta standoff produced the best linebreak of the first half and dinked a kick into Tongan’s ingoal with centre James Elias dotting down.
Moses’ conversion cut the deficit to four points but Tonga struck back through Fusitua again. The Warriors wing soared high to snare a crosskick by clubmate Ata Hingano.
The Cedars showed why they are one of the proudest teams at the World Cup with a vital try a minute from halftime after winning repeat sets. The impressive Anthony Layoun laced a superbly placed kick into the right-hand corner for wing Abbas Miski to score.
Lebanon lost a golden opportunity at the start of the second spell when Doueihi stretched out through Hopoate’s tackle, but the video officials ruled ‘‘no try’’.
Let off the hook, Tonga pushed out to an eight-point buffer through a Hingano penalty goal, forcing the Cedars to score twice to win.
Moses found some space to link with Elias, who put Miski over for his second try. Moses converted to reduce the gap to two points with 10 minutes to go.