Wales Given Tongan Wake Up Call

By Lestyn - 19/10/03
October 21 2003

Wales desperately clung on to beat Tonga 27-20 after a disjointed display in Canberra. Failure to do the basics as well as convert pressure into points, set up a nervous final few minutes. Stephen Jones had a complete nightmare at ten, as Hansen's decision to rest his big guns back fired.

Nightmare. But fortunately this mare ended just in time for Wales's quarter final aspirations to stay alive. Any momentum built up from last weeks opening victory was soon wiped out by a combination of dogged Polynesian play and an inept Welsh effort - Hansen now has the unenviable task of raising his beleaguered squad for the more daunting prospect of Italy.

Canberra Stadium will of course host that make or break game, but if today's game was to go by it was hardly a home away from home for Wales. With the majority of the 20,000 sell out crowd siding with Tongans and the lashing rain it was always going to be awkward place to play. But even if Hansen had opted to rest seven of his key players, everybody was expecting a comfortable win and even a bonus point. The Kiwi coaches selection almost proved to be fatal, with those players bought in, playing themselves out of his side for next week.  

Iestyn Harris was a late inclusion in the starting line up, due to Sonny Parker pulling out with a back injury. Harris had no where near as much affect as in the Canada match, although that was probably down to Ceri Sweeney's absence, as Stephen Jones struggled to read the Blues player. Jones struggled in all area's of his game, particularly with the boot as he missed several easy penalty attempts. It would be harsh to blame solely the outside half, the pack failed to present a decent enough platform. Gareth Cooper must cop some blame for his hesitant distribution, as the Tongans were all ready in Stephen Jones's face by the time he received it.

Even after a stuttering opening, Wales should have had the game sealed up by half time. The expected Tongan opening salvo came, but produced little we couldn't cope with, however sloppy handling and consistent failure to find touch allowed the South Sea islanders to stay in the game. Several surges into their 22 only produced two Stephen Jones penalties, and a Pierre Hola penalty in return, meant Wales only had a a narrow 6-3 lead.

But for the next ten minutes it was all the side in red, as Wales set up camp in the Tonga 22. It was from that period of play that Gareth Cooper picked up from behind a Welsh scrum and made a dash down to the right touchline, and dive over for a well taken score. Stephen Jones pulled the conversion wide. At 11-3 another try would have probably killed the game off, however any belief that it was to be the beginning of a stroll, was short lived as an all to typical howler from Rhys Williams saw Pierre Hola pounce to make it 11-10. Williams slipped on the wet surface, knocking the ball forward into the path of the Tongan outside half.

With the fact they we were actually going  to have to work to grind out a result starting to dawn, the ball was moved wide, but a two man over lap was spurned, by another piece of poor handling - which at such a critical time was just criminal. However the resulting ruck saw Tonga penalised and Stephen Jones kick the three points. 14-10 at half time was a worrying score line. Jones struck another almost immediately after the re-start, but the outside halves evening went rapidly down hill from there onwards.

Mefin Davies set up a glorious opportunity to put the game out of doubt five minutes in, the Warriors hooker burst into a gap in the Tongan 22, the ball was recycled with the try line gaping, but Charvis some how managed to pass the ball forward. Tonga's scrum was shown up again, and the Islanders subsequently gave a penalty away, only for Jones to miss it. The outside half missed a slightly longer effort three minutes later.

Failure to convert our clear territorial advantage, almost allowed Tonga to pull level, had it not been for some crossing in midfield, and then after Gareth Llewellyn of all people exploited a gap in the Tongan backline, only for his attempted inside pass to fall into the hands of Va'enuku, but the full back was shielded into touch after a long run down the right touchline.

Failure to convert our clear territorial advantage, almost allowed Tonga to pull level, had it not been for some crossing in midfield. And then after Gareth Llewellyn exploited found a gap in the Tongan back line, only for his attempted inside pass to fall into the hands of Va'enuku, but the full back was shielded towards the touchline and could only find touch with his kick ahead. Outside half Hola missed a golden opportunity to pressure Wales even more, slipping as he stepped up to convert a penalty just on the Welsh 22.

The next ten minutes were all Wales's, only some desperate Tongan tackling prevented Rhys Williams from making up for his earlier error.  Replacement Martyn Williams was soon to follow the likes of Zinzan Brooke and Neil Back into the history books, with a scuffed drop goal right in front of the posts to enlarge the gulf between the sides. Some embarrassing Welsh forward play, saw their Tongan counter parts steam role them in a 30 yard maul that would lead to Kivalu going over to make it 20-15. Hola's conversion miss however, offered some breathing space.

With the pressure really on, it was up to Iestyn Harris to more or less sow up the game for Wales, with a perfectly floated pass into the hands of Martyn Williams, who completed his role as super sub by diving over to touchdown, almost unimpeded with fifteen minutes left, fifteen minutes of unrelenting Tongan pressure as it turned out.

Lavaka's push over the try in the seventy seventh minutes was probably one minute too late, any longer and the Islanders led superbly by Warriors scrum half Silo Martens who on the night got the better of his regional team mate and fellow number nine Gareth Cooper. It was almost as if Charvis and co were determined to hand the match to their opponents, as the Tongans began to pick holes in the Welsh defence with ease. 

The Italians must be licking their lips in anticipation.

Wales Scorers:
Tries: Cooper, M Williams
Conversions: S Jones
Penalty Goals: S Jones (4)
Drop Goals: M Williams

Tonga scorers:
Tries: Hola, Kivalu, Lavaka
Conversions: Hola
Penalty Goals: Hola