Tonga will be looking to claim their first win of the Pacific Nations Cup when they take on Canada on Friday the 9th of July.
Struggling sides Tonga and Canada will want to bring the curtain down on their respective Pacific Nations Cup campaigns with victories when they go head-to-head this Friday. Both teams have failed to register wins this term and really need a morale booster with the Rugby World Cup less than 50 days away.
Tonga v Canada
Friday 9 July
Churchill Park
05:00
To Win (80 Mins)
Tonga
Draw
Canada
*Odds to be added upon release
Tonga
Tonga have endured a rather poor Pacific Nations Cup losing their Round 1 game to Samoa 17-25 and the going down 41-7 to Japa last weekend.
While the scoreline against the World Cup hosts was a rather embarrassing one, head coach Toutai Kefu will be more worried about his team’s style of play. The Tongans kicked a hell of a lot of ball away and when they did try attack they weren’t very inventive with the ball hardly ever getting past the inside centre’s channel.
Yes, Tonga do like to keep things tight and use their big forwards as runners but you are always going to struggle to win a rugby match if you don’t give the ball some width. Hopefully, they work on adding some dynamism to their backline during the week.
Canada
Like Tonga, the Canadians come into this weekend’s clash off the back of consecutive defeats having gone down 47-19 to the United States in Round 1 and then 38-13 to Fiji in Round 2.
The Canadians are simply not good enough defensively. They have left huge gaps in their midfield during the opening two rounds and have been susceptible to rolling mauls. They’ve also struggled for fluidity on attack with some promising moments failing to bear fruit due to poor decision making or an untimely error.
Verdict: Tonga
Both sides like to play a forward orientated game but their packs are honestly not that great. This is likely to be a bit of a slugfest, which I can see Tonga winning by no more than eight points.
