England taken to task from Tonga
6-Feb-2010 03:34 PM

With England being defending champions of the Wellington sevens last season, it would have been a big ask for the Tongans to define that statement.

But supporters and viewers around the world were treated to a marvelous display of 7s rugby when England were taken to the wire by the fiery Tongans only to win 24-19 at the sound of the hooter.

Many would have thought the game to be a blow out with winger Christian wade showing his speed by scoring after out pacing the Tongan wing to score on the far side making it 5-0 with the Captain, Ben Gollings, adding the conversion.

The next few minutes was a period of fumbles and mistakes and with only less then a minute left on the clock, Tonga was showing great determination to break the line and they did it through the services of wingman Siaosi Longi who score Tonga’s first try and drew level 7-7.

As the game resumed from kick off the Tongans had all the momentum putting some huge tackles and driving the English back to their 22meter line making them surrender the ball.

Through a penalty the Tongans broke the English line of defence again through big man Siaosi and was caught short by a couple of meters but great support play from the Tongan rover, Siosiua Ma'afu dotted over the line to put the Tongans in the lead at half time with scores 14-7.

The second half started off as if they hadn’t even had half time with Tonga being the momentous team and applying all the pressure on England.

However, cool heads saw English speedster Dan Norton score in the right hand corner to put the scores at 12-14 living the Poms two points away from the boys from the friendly isles.

But to think that the Tongans were going to give up with less than 2 minutes left on the clock, guess again as Tonga kept on pushing and pushing and did not give up . As a result of theperseverance they got a lucky break to Charles Mateo to score in the left hand corner and put them level with the England with only 30 seconds left in the match.

It was coming to a great climax for both teams as IRB Series legend Ben Gollings, under a cool pressure prevailed with his trademark chip kick to only miss the ball as he lunged for it but had great support through Dan Caprice to eventually win it for the Champions.

Just at the hooter with the final score standing at 24-19.



By Dylan Wolfgramm