Head to head How the previous meetings went

England ran in 13 tries and Paul Grayson kicked 36 points in this World Cup clash. Tonga had Ngalu Taufo’ou sent off for a smash on Richard Hill. The second meeting of the sides in the World Cup was a closer affair, Paul Sackey landing two tries and Jonny Wilkinson kicking 16 points. is also an ongoing tension between the players and the Tongan rugby union, which it often falls to Piutau to resolve.

“The hardest thing is keeping boys focused on games, rather than getting payment, flights or reimbursements,” Piutau said. “We keep saying this is going to be our last tour, but every time we are named in the squad we feel that call. We sacrifice a lot to be here, but we could not be prouder to pull on that red jersey. Maybe one day there will be some positive change.”

All those challenges will dissipate as they prepare to face England in Sapporo. In a World Cup setting, Tonga are highly dangerous opponents. Eight years ago, they beat a France team who would go on to reach the final. While England’s attention is largely drawn to their encounters with Argentina and France, Tonga’s entire focus is centred on their opening match. Not only is there the opportunity to shock the world, but there is the chance to secure rugby union’s future in their own country.

“For us we know that nothing is impossible,” Piutau said. “We beat France in 2011. You look at Japan beating South Africa at the last World Cup. Our campaign will be decided by how well we play in that first game. If we play well against England then we can build some momentum off that.

“The previous two World Cups it has been quite tough starting off with losses and trying to build momentum from that. As a group we know that Tonga have never been out of the pool stage, which is a great motivation for us to try to create history for this group and leave a legacy for kids in Tonga and around the world to want to pull that red jersey on.”